Thread by @hwag_ucmc

💬Today, HWAG took part in the multilateral EU-NATO-Ukraine webinar, “Countering #Disinformation in #Ukraine Together: What Role for the #EU and #NATO?”, represented by our Head, @OTsekhanovska. The event was organized by @EUDelegationUA and @NATOinUkraine.

🤝Oleksandra stressed that one of the key goals behind #Russia’s many disinformation campaigns is to undermine unity – both within target societies, finding the vulnerabilities and lines of division to exploit, and on the international arena, weakening alliances and partnerships.

How does disinformation attempt to reach this goal? Read the overview of the main points below:

🔷 #Russian disinfo often follows the same or at least very similar patterns: territorial revisionism is often supported and promoted, then emphasized by pro-Russian and Russian media until it reaches the target society and raises the level of hostility towards the partner state.

🔷 Hostility and mistrust is something that #Russian disinformation aims for, particularly through pushing the “external governance” narrative, and with quite a success – last year, 46% of Ukrainians agreed that in one or another form #Ukraine was controlled by foreign powers.

🔷 One of the key instruments that pro-Russian actors use in media is reliance on seemingly independent experts, who, in fact, are involved in political PR and are loyal to the channel’s owner – which yet again underlines how much of a threat oligarchization of media remains.

🔷 The promotion of “external governance” embodies two key threats. One of them is internal – through influencing electoral behavior of Ukrainians in favour of pro-Russian forces. The second threat is external – undermining #Ukraine’s partnership with the #West.

❗️Hostility towards the #West is artificially created and promoted by the #Kremlin’s agents of influence to divide #Ukraine and its partners. So the most crucial pillar of any potential response – which should always be proactive – is our unity.

🇪🇺🇺🇦Representatives of #NATO and the #EU, in their turn, underlined the importance of cooperation with #Ukraine in its battle against #Russian disinformation. Once again, they voiced their support for the independence and sovereignty of #Ukraine.

We are thankful for the opportunity to be part of the event with such great speakers and panelists:
🔶 H.E. Baiba Braze, Assistant Secretary General (@NATO)
🔶 @kmathernova, Deputy Director General (@EU_Commission)
🔶 Oliver Rentschler, Director for Public Diplomacy (@eu_eeas);

🔶 @NATORomeroC, Deputy Assistant Secretary General (@NATO)
🔶 Taras Shevchenko, Deputy Minister of @MKIPUkraine
🔶 @TsybulskaLiubov, @MKIPUkraine
🔶 @wiczipedia, @TheWilsonCenter
🔶 @pasieronen, Secretariat of the Security Committee of Finland

Watch the recorded webinar (in Ukrainian) here: facebook.com/EUDelegationUk…