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In 2023, the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security actively worked to improve strategic communications. It also implemented a wide range of tasks in the field of countering Russian disinformation and propaganda.
For the second year in a row, the key event in the field of strategic communications of Ukraine has been the international Kyiv StratCom Forum, initiated and held by the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security. In 2023, it was devoted to the topic Public Communications in Conditions of War and gathered the best Ukrainian and Western experts to exchange experience and develop new approaches. In 2 days, 12 panels with 49 speakers were held. Among the 350 guests who attended the offline event and 90 guests online, there were representatives of all key Ukrainian agencies, directly engaged in the fight against disinformation, as well as representatives of the strategic communication departments of our partners: NATO, diplomats and ambassadors of the EU countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada.
The Centre also continued to develop daily message boxes Main Positions of Information Response, explaining the state’s position on major events in Ukraine and the world. They are used in the work by public communication specialists, Ukrainian and international experts, journalists and activists (“one voice” formation).
In addition, the Centre organized and conducted (independently or jointly with partners) 16 briefings, round tables, and international conferences on relevant topics, for example, the International Conference on the 105th Anniversary of the Proclamation of the Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, a press marathon jointly with the Main Directorate of Intelligence, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Resistance Center on the situation in the temporarily occupied territories, and many other media events.
A separate area of work of the Centre for Strategic Communication involved conducting information campaigns, both in Ukraine and abroad. Here are just a few examples.
An all-Ukrainian communication campaign Invincible Because United was held for the internal audience. Within its framework, 10 stories of Ukrainians who help others with their work and do everything to bring the victory closer were filmed.
The videos were broadcast on Suspilne TV channel (more than 510,000 views), on outdoor advertising channels (2.5 million OTSs), on the screens of Ukrzaliznytsia — Intercity trains, and on social networks (more than 1.3 million views).
The campaign was promoted by opinion leaders: Oleksandr Pedan, Tonia Matvienko, Jamala, KALUSH, Alyona alyona, Oleksandr Teren and others, as well as experts from various fields: Serhii Zhadan, Nataliia Kryvda, Maks Kolesnikov, Inna Popereshniuk, Yurii Hudymenko, and others.
Information was also spread through the media: as part of a special project with Ukrainska Pravda.Life, the tests “What does your unity look like?” were published on the The Village platform (https://thevillagespecial.com.ua/yaka-vona-tvoia-iednist/) and others. A total of 80 materials.
Moreover, within the framework of cooperation with the regions, for the residents of the liberated and frontline territories, the relevant information campaign included 12 video-explainers based on the materials of the Centre’s project — Dovidka.info (more information can be found below). Corresponding videos were presented on the resources of STB, Novyi Channel, ICTV, Youtube Fakty ICTV, Facebook Fakty ICTV.
11 audios with Dovidka.info tips were shared on HIT FM, Lux FM, Nashe, Bayraktar, Roks, Maximum, Kiss FM, Relax, Melody FM, Nostalgie radio stations. A TOTAL of 1,500 times going on air during the period of 15.06-06.12.2023
In addition, 42 billboards were placed in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia (+oblast), Mykolaiv (+oblast) based on Dovidka.info materials (from October 1 to December 31).
Together with the National Resistance Center, a project for border and frontline regions Dovidka.info Resistance has been launched. Within it, trainings in the regions, podcasts and short videos for radio, animation videos are developed, a brochure with tips, posters, billboards, leaflets, and other handouts are published. Project geography: Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, and Volyn oblasts.
The Centre also participated in a large information campaign by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy on Phishing, Internet Fraud. How to Protect Your Data. Materials from the Dovidka.info website on the topic of cybersecurity were published on the resources of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and the Regional Military Administration, as well as in printed newspapers in the regions of the south of Ukraine.
An example of an information campaign for a foreign audience: in Germany, the Centre explained the concept of “Russkiy Mir” (die Russische Welt); namely, that it is a revanchist idea of restoring Russia to the borders of the USSR/Russian empire, which justifies the war against Ukraine and the war crimes of the Russian army.
For this purpose, a special setup was installed in Berlin, opposite the Embassy of the Russian Federation, and a special issue of the printed “newspaper” Russkiy Mir was made. Information about the campaign, which lasted for 9 months, was placed in 17 German national and regional newspapers (Der Tagesspiegel, T-Online, BILD.de, der Spiegel, FAZ, Berliner Zeitung, Kurier, etc.). 19 articles were published. As a result, the estimated number of reach of the communication campaign was 20 million people. In particular, it received a high level of support from German politicians who became campaign speakers.
The Centre regularly distributes to foreign audiences (through its own capabilities and the capabilities of partners) specially created information videos adapted to the audience of a particular country. For example, we explained to the allies the need to provide certain types of weapons and also thanked them for their support of Ukraine.
In addition, as part of the Centre’s international cooperation, the staff participated as speakers in 32 conferences abroad, which took place in the EU, the UK, the USA, and Latin America. There, we shared with partners the Ukrainian experience in combating Russian disinformation, as well as developed joint measures to counter information challenges.
And of course, the Centre’s employees are in constant contact with foreign experts, representatives of foreign media, and even politicians; they promptly identify international information threats to Ukraine and respond to them. The most active assistants of the Centre were presented with certificates of appreciation.
During the year, the analytical team developed and published in the media a total of 340 thorough analytical materials revealing the criminal nature of the information war against Ukraine, as well as extensive research, such as Genocidal Rhetoric of the Russian Regime, which will become part of the criminal case of Ukraine against Russian propagandists.
Based on the daily digests of Russian propaganda, which the Centre has been compiling since the first day of the war, the book How the Russian Information Warship… Fakes and Narratives of Propaganda in the Full-Scale War has been prepared for publication.
As part of the educational direction of the Centre, 102 trainings were held in 2023 (throughout Ukraine). The number of participants was 837 people (civil servants — 657, the military — 75, others — 105).
For the quality of educational events, the Centre’s team prepared, published, and presented its methodological materials, namely:
– analytical manual Russia’s Hybrid War against Ukraine. How to Win on the Information Front.
– brochure 10 Postulates of Strategic Communications.
– manual Methodology for Measuring and Evaluating Strategic Communications.
The Centre’s operational communications team launched Spravdi Bot last year to effectively detect information attacks on Ukraine; its functionality allows receiving messages about fakes directly from readers. In the first month of operation alone, the Centre received and processed about 1,000 signals sent. Monitoring of TikTok, Reddit, 9gag, and other sites where Russia also conducts PSYOPs targeting Ukrainian or foreign audiences has also begun.
According to these collected data, the Centre informed the Ukrainian and foreign audiences about the information threats. Thus, refutations and other materials were prepared, which were distributed on the Centre’s Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Viber, X, and YouTube pages. New accounts of the Centre have also been created on Threads, WhatsApp, TikTok.
The Centre’s employees also regularly comment on the situation in the field of combating disinformation for Ukrainian and international media. During the year, we counted more than 210 comments to the media.
Thus, one of the illustrative examples can be considered an information and educational campaign on awareness in countering disinformation. The EU-supported project, which was joined by the Centre’s analysts, started in June 2023, and will last a year. In general, the team has joined the development of 18 products that, together with other CSOs and media, are presented for Ukrainian and foreign audiences. These are publications, participation in live broadcasts, or shooting stories.
On 1+1 Channel
- A story about new textbooks of world history and Russian history for grades 10-11
- Breakfast with 1+1 on the topic: Disruption of Support for Ukraine in the West
- Breakfast with 1+1 on the topic: Pseudo-Elections in the Temporarily Occuppied Territories
- “Demilitarization of Ukraine”: How Russia Justifies Its Aggression Blaming the Supply of Western Weapons
YouTube 1+1, Digests of Russian Зropaganda Answering Skabeeva and Solovyov: The team of analysts contributed to the creation of 34 issues. You can view them in these playlists YouTube Channel Ukraine Today and Youtube Channel 2+2.
Publications
- From “Fraternal Peoples” to “War with the Nazis”: the Evolution of Russian Lies.
- How Russian Propaganda Polarizes Ukrainian Society, a column by Iryna Subota, the Centre’s expert.
- “Demilitarization of Ukraine”: How Russia Justifies Its Aggression Blaming the Supply of Western Weapons.
The project that makes the Centre’s especially proud isDovidka.info. It concentrates expert tips to Ukrainians on how to act under various circumstances during the war. The project has become a universal tool: a guide and help for people online on how to act in emergency situations during the war. How to provide psychological assistance to a child during the shelling? What to do when the enemy spreads fakes all over social networks? How to get to the bottom of things? How to calm down oneself and the child, how to behave in the occupation, how to protect oneself from mines and many other topics.
Dovidka.info materials, with the support of the EU, are generated and posted by the Centre’s team on various platforms[1] [2] .
43 new materials appeared on the website during the year. Interestingly, the largest number of views falls on the material about a handbook for a Russian soldier on how to surrender to the Armed Forces of Ukraine: 3.4 mln per year. coverage of the site (completely updated) over the past year amounted to 7.8 million (12.7 million for all time).
Dovidka.info is also active on social networks.
The Instagram account has already reached 1.9 million people. During this time, 3,840 accounts organically subscribed to it. 52 collaborations were implemented: with bloggers (Anatolii Anatolich, Andrii Shymanovskyi), artists (Sviatoslav Vakarchuk), all-Ukrainian media (NV, Sho Tam), government organizations (MCIP, Ministry of Education, National Resistance Center), as well as civil society organizations (Ua Animals, Helping to Leave).
Since February 2023, 6,686 people have organically subscribed to the Dovidka.info page on TikTok. The total number of video likes is 178,000; 2.5 mln of views.
On Viber, the Dovidka.info channel has 64,000 subscribers and is placed in the Useful section, where it can be easily found by users of this messenger.
In 2023, 92 videos (a total of 297 videos) were published on the SPRAVDI YouTube channel, where Dovidka.info expert materials are presented. In total, they had 8.6 mln views (the total number of views is 24.7 million).
In addition, motion videos by Dovidka.info were also placed on television (the national marathon), in the Kharkiv metro, and on Intercity trains.
Thus, 6 animated videos on the rights of Ukrainians to accessible shelters were produced:
3 motion videos on cybersecurity for children were developed (together with the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection). The video was dedicated to the month of cybersecurity, which is held every year around the world and in particular in Ukraine. (They were shown on the National marathon).
The motion video How to Express Gratitude to the Military?, which Dovidka.info released for the Defender’s Day on October 1, was viewed 995,000 times.
Within the framework of cooperation with the Kyivstar TV platform, 5 series were uploaded to their platform with all expert videos broken down by topics: paternity, everyday life of war, education, security, medicine, and psychology.
In cooperation with Ukrzaliznytsia, Dovidka.info printed and placed posters about safety on trains and posters urging not to smoke in cars. They contain QR codes with links to the Dovidka.info website and the Spravdi Youtube channel. They are placed in all railway cars.
This is was what 2023 was like for the Centre for Strategic Communication (more events and participants cannot be included within this material).
This is was what 2023 was like for the Centre for Strategic Communication (more events and participants cannot be included within this material).
And since next year there will bring even more information threats for Ukraine, therefore, as Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, noted during his visit to Kyiv: “We have to fight this battle, win it because it’s not just about territory, it’s about people…. We must create organizations and support structures such as the one I just visited — the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security.”
To this end, the Centre’s team has already developed an action plan for 2024. And with all the tools we have, we are preparing to implement them.
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