Society quickly mastered specifics of information flow during war – Ukraine's Deputy Defence Minister

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar believes Ukrainian society has mastered the specifics of information flow during the war unprecedentedly fast.

Source: Maliar on Telegram

Quote: "We may now say that our society has mastered the specifics of information reporting during the war in an unprecedentedly fast manner and has learned to identify hostile psychological operations (PSYOPs) very well."

Details: Maliar believes that the greatest information challenge of this war is not Russian disinformation but rather the necessity for the entire society to switch to a wartime information regime.

"Ukraine has not introduced military censorship. We assumed that our society is mature and that explanations would be enough. Throughout the full-scale invasion, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has held many offline meetings with bloggers, experts and journalists, and we always found understanding. A year ago, the MoD developed and submitted rules for covering military information to all oblast administrations. Every head of the military-civilian administration is in touch with us 24/7 on this issue. And the result is clear," she said.

The deputy minister said that "the stake on the maturity of society was right".

Meanwhile, she noted there are people who "could post anything for the sake of views and likes" and make public capital on the military topic.

"However, the mature society has condemned and distrusted such people," Maliar added.

"We still have sporadic leaks of sensitive information from enlisted military personnel. There are cases when civilians help brigades in exchange for information and even in exchange for interviews with certain media. The MoD, along with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, is addressing this issue. But isolated cases in an army of several hundred thousand is not a bad result," she concluded.

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