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Information and Information Technologies in the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian War

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War in Ukraine. Media and Emotions

Abstract

Information warfare is a new dimension of modern armed conflict. Russian efforts to distort reality in the 2022 war have met with effective countermeasures from Ukraine. Russia lost not only the war for the language, but also the sympathy of world public opinion. The defeat resulted in an attempt to impose the nomenclature created by the Kremlin on war ‘special operation’ or ‘fight against Nazism’. This is all the more surprising as activities in cyberspace and information warfare are domains that have so far been widely recognized as the source of Russian power.

The reasons for Ukraine's victory in the information sphere are complex, ranging from Russia's clear disregard of the information warfare at the first stage of hostilities, to the decision taken quite quickly by Western countries to cut off access to Russian information distribution channels, to the attitude of President Volodymyr Zelensky. A key role in shaping the perception of the information regarding the war was also played by social networking sites and actions undertaken spontaneously by Ukrainian citizens.

The aim of the article is to show the place of information warfare in the Russian military doctrine, the main phases, strategies and goals of warfare in the infosphere and cyberspace. The article also attempts to discuss the reasons for Ukraine's victory in this domain as well as the military and political consequences of Kyiv's imposition of the war narrative.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In military terminology, but also in analytical terminology, it is spoken of ‘information warfare’. In this study, the authors use the term ‘information war’ because it was assumed that it is one of the elements of the actual warfare in Ukraine.

  2. 2.

    КPым. Пyть нa Poдинy, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGGNXIQXlcU [accessed 02.11.2022].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bialystok, Bialystok, Poland

    Adam R. Bartnicki, Elżbieta Kużelewska & Michał Ożóg

Authors
  1. Adam R. Bartnicki
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  2. Elżbieta Kużelewska
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  3. Michał Ożóg
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Correspondence to Elżbieta Kużelewska .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Political Psychology, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland

    Agnieszka Turska-Kawa

  2. Political Science, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland

    Agnieszka Kasińska-Metryka

  3. International Relations, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland

    Karolina Pałka-Suchojad

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Bartnicki, A.R., Kużelewska, E., Ożóg, M. (2023). Information and Information Technologies in the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian War. In: Turska-Kawa, A., Kasińska-Metryka, A., Pałka-Suchojad, K. (eds) War in Ukraine. Media and Emotions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37608-5_3

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