Informational Diversions in the Conflict in Ukraine

Abstract

Aim. To identify and classify the forms and methods of information war in the modern conflict in Ukraine (during the Special Military Operation).Methodology. The study was carried out using the methods of analysis, synthesis, generalization, and interpretation of the results.Results. The forms and methods of conducting information war in Ukraine during the Special Military Operation (strategic information operations, special propaganda, fake news, and operational games with the elites) are identified and classified. It has been revealed that the most prominent means of the information warfare is the special propaganda, the goals and methods of which have not changed since the Cold War; strategic information operations, which are operational combinations of foreign intelligence, in this conflict at the present stage are present only in the form of the so-called "Incident in Bucha". It has been established that fake news massively produced by the Ukrainian side and its Western "sponsors" is aimed at diverting the attention of the Russian side (forces and means of information warfare) from the real operational combinations conducted by the CIA and MI-6 ("diversion to an unusable object").Research implications. Information about the latest forms and methods of organizing and conducting information operations in the conditions of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine can be used in the work of state bodies responsible for organizing a systemic counteraction to information aggression by foreign states, and will also be useful to political scientists, political technologists, and specialists in countering destructive political technologies.