From news to cartoons: Ukrainians should be wary of any information from Russia, says expert

In Russia's war against Ukraine, information and culture are tools of cognitive influence, so Ukrainians should treat all Russian content with suspicion and filter it through their own “mental shield.”

This was stated by Rena Marutian, director of the Institute for National Resilience and Security and professor at the Department of Global and National Security Department of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, in an interview with Ukrinform.

She answered affirmatively when asked whether Ukrainians should a priori distrust everything Russian.

"In wartime, yes. Perhaps something will change over time, but for now, all Russian information, political statements, cultural products, including films and cartoons, must be filtered through our cognitive resilience. This is our ‘mental shield’ against the cognitive viruses they want to ‘infect’ us with," Marutian said.

She noted that modern warfare, in addition to clashes on the battlefield, is also a war of myths. For the enemy, such a myth is the “Russian world.” It is pretty real and practical: It combines Russian culture—literature, ballet, cinema—with the narrative of Putin as a “great leader.”

The professor explained that this grand myth-making idea breaks down into strategic and tactical narratives that are spread through all kinds of media—movies, cartoons, computer games, theater productions, books.

"All of this belongs to the cognitive sphere, because by consuming such products, a person forms their own picture of the world. You will not be subject to Russian cognitive influence—it simply will not reach your consciousness if you do not watch Russian news or films, and your child does not watch the cartoon Masha and the Bear. That is why banning Russian information products is part of our defense strategy—not to let enemy content into our own information space," Marutian emphasized.

At the same time, she noted that this content still partially penetrates our space, so we must simultaneously develop our own attractive, competitive information products.

As reported by Ukrinform, the UK Ministry of Defense, citing intelligence data, said that Russia seeks to give the Federal Security Service (FSB) unprecedented power to influence the functioning of the country's communication networks.