These are the key hybrid influences in Ukraine we have monitored within our #HybridWeekly rubric:
- In the light of the upcoming meeting of Presidents Biden and Putin on June 16, the pro-Russian forces are pushing narratives aimed at undermining Ukraine’s partnership with the US. They portray Ukraine as a bargaining chip between the US and Russia, attempting to deny Ukraine’s role as a full-fledged actor of international relations. Another goal is to sow dismay and disappointment in the audience, forcing them to believe Ukraine is betrayed by its partners and left on its own.
- Pro-Kremlin media have intensified their attacks on the two recently founded centers countering disinformation in Ukraine, as they feel threatened by the possible charges for their destructive activities. The institutions are accused of censorship and portrayed as a tool of rigged games among various interest groups. This is closely connected to our third point:
- In the same way, the pro-Kremlin forces target the civil society organizations that monitor their activities in the information space of Ukraine. As the civic initiatives, such as the Institute of Mass Information, Internews, Detector media, consistently expose disseminators of Russian disinformation, the latter intensify the campaign to discredit these organizations. They blame them for censorship of journalists, which are in reality propagandists, and claim they pursue the interests of Western parties in Ukraine, yet again reinforcing the narrative of external governance.