Russian information and psychological operations are actively using the social network TikTok to spread anti-mobilization sentiments among Ukrainians, and this has a significant and rapid impact on public sentiment, especially among young people. This conclusion was reached by the authors of a sociological survey on the impact of disinformation on mobilization processes in Ukraine, conducted by the InfoLight.UA analytical group. This study covered the problems with mobilization of citizens liable for military service to defend Ukraine from Russia’s armed attack on it. The material was prepared by Oleksandr Savytskyi
The InfoLight.UA analytical group surveyed four categories of Ukrainians liable for military service. They include men who have already been mobilized for military service, men who are ready to join the ranks of the Defense Forces in case of mobilization, people who deliberately seek to avoid fulfilling their civic duty, and Ukrainian refugees within the country and abroad. According to Yuriy Honcharenko, head of InfoLight.UA, the attitudes of people in these four groups of respondents often coincide, but also have their differences on some topical issues.
“The leading approach is to eliminate territorial recruitment centers and replace them with a civilian structure, mobilizing all social groups regardless of income status. This is the answer to the question of fair mobilization, which is not felt by Ukrainians. This reason was mentioned by all four categories. One of the leading proposals is to ensure the adaptation of recruits to the war by having them stay in rear units for the first three months of service. This is probably one of those reforms that is not difficult to implement, but can be very motivating. Another wish is to stop mobilization on the street and in public places. This is a reaction to the fact that the lack of fairness, regular rotations and rest for units is an obvious reason that demotivates the military. It also includes a guaranteed fixed term of service, the creation of effective channels of communication between the state and citizens, and the elimination of corruption in the TCC.”
Despite the problems with mobilization and the observance of the rule of law during its implementation, the head of the NGO “Defense Veterans” Oleksiy Ivashyn warned that Russian propaganda is closely monitoring the development of these sentiments and is fueling them in every way possible.
“Of course, the enemy propaganda hyperbolizes these problems and adds huge portions of twitches. In fact, information and psychological operations are based on this. But we cannot deny that these problems do exist. We also have uneven mobilization of different social groups in Ukraine, and absolute uncertainty of terms of service. The mobilization processes in Ukraine are not going well. Accordingly, we have a vicious circle here, when the terms of service depend on how actively new recruits are recruited to replace the military. And there are no new recruits in sufficient numbers because mobilization has failed. As for the problems of civilians, there is no effective refugee policy.”
People who have already been mobilized and are now experiencing all the flaws of an inefficient state system as military personnel are perhaps the most acutely affected by corruption in the mobilization services and the military-political leadership of Ukraine, noted political expert Volodymyr Soniuk. In his opinion, this can explain the high percentage of those in the military who would like to see elections in Ukraine held as soon as possible.
“Over these almost three years of war, they have been sickened to the core by the incompetence of their top leadership. Not their direct commanders, but those on whom their commanders depend – the highest political leadership of the state. When the military are sent to storm a certain height to plant a flag and show it on the “United Telethon” TV channel, when really competent and really authoritative military leaders are fired without even explaining why. They fired the commander-in-chief, fired his entire well-coordinated team, and didn’t even say why. The number of people who tell sociologists that the country is going in the wrong direction is growing dramatically. There is 300 billion of frozen Russian money in Europe. Our super task is to get it. On the condition that we have a truly competent government that is truly authoritative in the eyes of the international community. A leadership that will be respected by everyone, from Trump to Orban, from Trudeau to the leaders of the Global South, a leadership that will be able to solve problems in a concrete way, and not hold some beautiful forums where people gather and take pictures, but there are zero results. Then the conditions for the return of refugees from abroad will be created.”
In addition to the quite fair complaints against the Ukrainian government from the four groups of men interviewed, some of the representatives of these groups are influenced by Russian subversive propaganda and disinformation, said Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
“The enemy spends huge resources on creating its own content, inventions, statements, disinformation, and propaganda. He spends even more resources on spreading this or that propaganda and messages. Part of the volume of this dissemination is used to pick up statements, information, or data from inside Ukraine, reinforcing them with its own hostile propaganda inventions. This is disseminated to the Russian audience and then returned to the Ukrainian audience as interpreted. And, of course, there are attempts to spread it around the world. Russian propaganda targets certain messages to the Western world, to free democratic countries, to certain countries of the Global South. It spends enormous resources on this, without exaggeration. The enemy monitors and uses the most vulnerable and sensitive topics to spread its own narratives and propaganda, primarily on Ukrainian society. The purpose of this is to demotivate Ukrainian citizens, to unbalance the state, and to make it impossible to further effectively counter Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine. It should be noted that Russia is not getting the desired results here. Ukrainian society remains highly resilient and immune to Russian propaganda. But every day there are new attacks.”
According to Yusov, Russian propaganda efforts are aimed not only at Ukrainians, but also at a much wider audience around the world.
“The enemy is implementing a number of information and psychological operations aimed at Ukrainian society and our partners. But the pro-Ukrainian coalition in the world is holding on. The enemy is spreading hyperbole about all Ukrainian internal problems, constantly stirring up hysteria around the threat of nuclear weapons use. Now they have a new story with Oreshnik. The threat from the nuclear power that is the Russian Federation is certainly real. But the task of frightening by destabilizing the domestic political situation and discrediting Ukraine in the world is a separate line that Russia continues to pursue, seeking to weaken and split the pro-Ukrainian coalition. Therefore, such threats will be particularly acute in the coming month.”
In his turn, Andriy Myseliuk, director of the Institute for Social and Political Design “Dialogue”, warned against the extremely insidious nature of provocations and disinformation used by Russian propaganda in an attempt to break the morale of Ukrainians:
“Information and psychological operations do not just cause some emotions of despair and panic, but are also intended to encourage people to take specific actions. Since February 24, 2022, there have been several information and psychological operations that have become markers of how Russia is trying to influence Ukrainian society. In the early days, there was a lot of hype about the so-called “marks” that were supposed to be painted on rooftops and in the streets. In fact, these were geodetic marks that were needed. But then panic really broke out because people were confused and scared. In information and psychological special operations, there are short-term goals, when dates that are valuable to Russians are chosen and hysteria is spun around them. For example, massive strikes against Ukraine on the anniversary of the beginning of full-scale aggression, or on the eve of May 9 or Ukrainian Independence Day on August 24, when they fear that there will be an unprecedented strike. And there are also long-term goals – to sow disbelief in the ability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to resist and achieve victory. As for the channels of transmission of these intimidations, these are primarily TikTok and anonymous Telegram channels. The only way to fight against this is to develop critical thinking, to try to analyze information, and in no way to try to just go with the flow that the Russians are trying to impose on us. The war has been going on for almost three years now, and during this time, Russia’s special operations have gone through several stages of development. At first, there were attempts to achieve an effect with short-term operations, and when they did not work, the Russians managed to rebuild and began to use a threatening mixture, when they take a problem or information and then scale it up and distort it. It is because there is a part of the truth that they have an effect. For example, if there is tension around the work of representatives of the Territorial Recruitment and Mobilization Centers, or corruption scandals in Ukraine. In recent months, they have been trying to massively use artificial intelligence for these special operations. They generate images and videos. So far, the quality of these products is relatively low, and a person who is critical can distinguish between what is true and what is generated by artificial intelligence. So now we can state that the Russians have not yet succeeded in achieving their main goals, to shake up Ukrainian society so that it is unable to consolidate to resist aggression. This is perhaps the most important result of their struggle.”
Ukrainian experts have warned that the channels for delivering Russian propaganda and disinformation have also changed. Instead of the previously super-popular Telegram messenger, the social network TikTok is now leading the way in Russian subversion. It is this social network that now requires increased attention and regulation due to its viral potential and the speed of disinformation spread, experts warned.
The material was prepared by Oleksandr Savytskyi, Polish Radio.
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