THE INFORMATION FRONT OF THE UKRAINIAN STATE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EVENTS OF THE MOSCOW INVASION

Abstract

The article examines the informational front of the Ukrainian state in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war paradigm. As the experience of not only Ukraine, but also the global events of the 1990s and 2000s (e.g. the Iraq War) has shown, state information policy should play a key role in strategies of in- fluence on other states, as well as in the so-called «selling the state’s interests abroad». Starting to consider the paradigm of information policy in times of full-scale invasion, it should be noted that the problems in the information space of the Ukrainian state are not new and have been formed over a period of time. Problems in Ukraine’s information policy have almost always existed, especially at the beginning of our country’s independence, i.e. since 1991. Therefore, this article will examine how Russian propaganda strategies have affected the perception of Ukraine as a state in the international arena both during 2014–2023 and at an earlier stage, at the beginning of our country’s independence. The purpose of the article is to identify the main problems that have arisen as a result of the Kremlin regime’s information campaign against Ukraine in the paradigm of the information front and war. The article also shows the mistakes and problems of the Ukrainian information strategy of the current Zelenskyy government. In analyzing the problems in Ukraine’s information front as of 2023, attention is paid to the past and present context of the problem in order to compare the situation in the information front in the 1990s/2000s and 2014, 2023; various dimensions of the influence of Russian agents on the population and authorities of Ukraine are studied. The article uses Ukrainian, Russian and American sources of information, as well as transcripts of documents, to further compare and debunk Moscow’s propaganda myths.