The Russian influence through mass media as a significant factor of hybrid war against Ukraine

Abstract

The article provides an analytical review of domestic and foreign media, considers their impact on various target audiences in the context of a hybrid war against Ukraine. The activity of Russia in the implementation of destructive strategic communications and disorienting influence on the Ukrainian and international community is analysed on the examples of specific narratives. The use of a systematic and comprehensive approach by the Russian Federation to the information presentation in the information environment remains an effective mean of conducting a hybrid aggression both against Ukraine and against other states, which this country considers as a threat to itself. One of the main components of the target audience for such resources is, first of all, the Russian society, and Moscow's main task is to legitimize Russia's foreign policy and enlist the support of the government's actions among its own citizens. To do this, Russian propaganda uses narratives depicting Ukraine and other countries in a distorted light. Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine consists of two aspects: kinetic (direct physical actions, such as warfare in the form of shelling, provocative actions with weapons and direct hostilities) and non-kinetic, which includes information warfare in the form of propaganda through the media. In the case of strengthening the kinetic aspect, non-kinetic methods and measures are intensified, namely the information war, which consists of the spread of fakes, manipulative narratives and propaganda discourses. The main reason is an intent of the Russian Federation to influence on the target audience in order to prepare the target audience emotionally for the change of its own model of societal behaviour. The article deals with the analysis of one aspect of the non-kinetic method of warfare — dissemination of media propaganda narratives by the aggressor country, the Russian Federation. Currently, actions of the Russian Federation concerning escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in military terms are directly connected to efforts of the Russian Federation in media. The analysis of Russian mass media shows, that narratives haven't change its meaning. Moreover, the narratives are supplemented by new messages, which strengthen them and also change their priority. In particular, it happens when newsworthy events within our country allow propagandists to provide information that will strengthen one or another Kremlin narrative. When such newsworthy events do not exist, they will be are created by spreading false information (fakes).