At the end of 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Joint Forces Operation in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the Information Security Strategy through 2025 was adopted. The document set out goals and objectives aimed at strengthening information security, countering disinformation, and enhancing media literacy.
Three months after the Strategy was adopted, the Russian Federation launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with large-scale information operations and disinformation campaigns against Ukraine becoming an integral part of the aggression. Since then, the security and information environment has changed significantly. Russia systematically uses information operations to undermine societal resilience, deepen internal divisions, discredit state institutions and Ukraine internationally, and exploit existing societal vulnerabilities, including gender stereotypes, discrimination, and gender-based violence. At the same time, the development of digital platforms, artificial intelligence technologies, and new tools for disseminating information has significantly increased the speed, scale, and complexity of such operations. This creates new challenges for the state and society that require a systematic, coordinated, and long-term response.
This situation requires a comprehensive response from the state. Effective public awareness campaigns, clear explanations, communication support for ongoing changes, and media literacy education all require sustained, systematic, and long-term efforts by state institutions.
Unfortunately, for more than six months, Ukraine has been operating without a strategy in one of the key areas of national security — information security. Meanwhile, the Russian Federation’s information attacks continue unabated and are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
The Information Security Strategy through 2030 has been developed by the relevant ministry and should be adopted as soon as possible. The draft Strategy sets out strategic objectives that include developing the state strategic communications system, countering disinformation, hybrid threats, and foreign information manipulation, as well as supporting cultural development. In addition, the Strategy provides for measures aimed at the information reintegration of Ukrainian citizens living in territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation, strengthening international cooperation to ensure Ukraine’s information security, promoting information cohesion, and supporting Ukrainian national and civic identity among Ukrainians living abroad.
We are convinced that underestimating cognitive warfare poses a serious threat to Ukraine’s defence capabilities. A country may win individual battles yet lose the war if its population becomes increasingly influenced by hostile narratives that the enemy systematically seeks to embed in Ukrainian society.
Therefore, we, representatives of civil society, call for the immediate adoption of the Information Security Strategy as an essential instrument for strengthening resilience during the full-scale war. The swift adoption of the Information Security Strategy through 2030 and the effective implementation of its provisions are essential to strengthening national resilience. The Strategy should provide a framework for coordinated and consistent efforts by the state, civil society, and international partners to protect Ukraine’s information space, preserve social cohesion, and strengthen Ukraine’s capacity to withstand prolonged aggression.
Organizations that signed the statement:
- Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM)
- Suspilnist Foundation
- Center for Strategic Communication
- Institute of Mass Information (IMI)
- Detector Media
- Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy
- Lakmus Information Analysis Center
- Ukrainian Institute of Media and Communication
- Human Rights Platform
- Digital Security Lab
- “How Not to Become a Vegetable” Infohygiene Initiative
- Women in Media