Ukraine Disinformation Profile
Ukraine Media Environment
Internet usage in Ukraine has climbed rapidly in the past decade, as of 2019 71% of the country reported using the internet at least once a month.[1] 68% of Ukrainians use social media as a main source of information.[2] Russia owns a number of media outlets in Ukraine. While Ukraine is host to large scale state backed disinformation campaigns, citizens also actively promote and spread disinformation online.[3] Ukraine is ranked 96th out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index.[4] State owned media is not heavily financed and oligarch capital dominates all forms of media in the country.[5]
Russian Disinformation in Ukraine
As part of the Russian annexation of Crimea and parts of Eastern Ukraine in 2014 Russia has engaged in hybrid warfare combining both conventional and information warfare. Russian media sought to portray the Ukrainian government as a fascist regime that was racist, xenophobic, and anti-Semitic all in an attempt to link it to Nazism.[6] Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s top military commander described Russia’s disinformation campaign as "the most amazing information warfare blitzkrieg we have ever seen in the history of information warfare".[7] Campaigns involved both a mixture of traditional media platforms like television as well as online actions.[8]
Yandex a Russian search engine similar to google shut down it's offices in Kiev and Odessa after the Ukraine’s State Security Service raided the offices and accused the company of illegally collecting user data to send to Russian agencies.[9]
In February 2021 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shut down three TV channels linked to the Kremlin.[10]
COVID-19
Researchers from the UNDP and UNICEF tracking disinformation from March to November 2020 found over 250,000 messages with disinformation narratives related to COVID-19 on Ukrainian media, forums, blogs, messenger and social networks.[11] Vaccine hesitancy in Ukraine is very high, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found in a survey that 60% of respondents in Ukraine did not want to take the vaccine.[12][13]
Even before COVID-19 the Russian government was promoting anti-vaccination campaigns abroad in order to undermine trust in government institutions. Recent Russian disinformation about COVID-19 is designed to weaken Ukraine's health care communication.[14]
- ↑ https://freedomhouse.org/country/ukraine/freedom-net/2020
- ↑ https://medialandscapes.org/country/ukraine
- ↑ Mejias UA, Vokuev NE. Disinformation and the media: the case of Russia and Ukraine. Media, Culture & Society. 2017;39(7):1027-1042. doi:10.1177/0163443716686672
- ↑ https://rsf.org/en/ranking#
- ↑ https://medialandscapes.org/country/ukraine
- ↑ https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/02/russian-disinformation-distorted-reality-in-ukraine-americans-should-take-note-putin-mueller-elections-antisemitism/
- ↑ Vandiver, J (2014) SACEUR: allies must prepare for Russia ‘hybrid war’. Stars and Stripes. Available at: http://www.stripes.com/news/saceur-allies-must-prepare-for-russia-hybrid-war-1.301464 (accessed 9 October 2015).
- ↑ Mejias UA, Vokuev NE. Disinformation and the media: the case of Russia and Ukraine. Media, Culture & Society. 2017;39(7):1027-1042. doi:10.1177/0163443716686672
- ↑ https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-yandex-ukraine/update-1-russias-yandex-to-close-offices-in-ukraines-odessa-and-kiev-idUSL8N1IY5W8
- ↑ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/analysis-ukraine-bans-kremlin-linked-tv-channels/
- ↑ https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/infodemic-covid-19-disinformation-bad-ukrainians-health-study-un-finds-enuk
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/world/ukraine-covid-vaccine-misinformation.html
- ↑ https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-wide-resistance-coronavirus-vaccines-9c5905221f25140e990e03142f974501
- ↑ Patel, S. S., Moncayo, O. E., Conroy, K. M., Jordan, D. and Erickson, T. B. (2020). ‘The landscape of disinformation on health crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine: hybrid warfare tactics, fake media news and review of evidence’. JCOM 19 (05), A02. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.19050202.