Ukrainian strategic communications must become more aggressive – Ukrinform director
Serhii Cherevatyi, Director General of the Ukrainian National News Agency Ukrinform, stated this during his address at the conference entitled "The Practice of Strategic Communications in Wartime," according to Ukrinform.
He noted that the events of February 2022 powerfully united Ukrainian society and gave Ukraine's strategic communications community vital experience in crisis coordination and asymmetric resistance to hostile information and psychological operations.
"Today, the aggressor state continues to build its destructive presence in Ukraine's information space, broadcasting its sweet-talking narratives to the whole world, including to our partners. As many experts have noted, we can see this clearly in their attempts to disrupt our mobilization efforts," Cherevatyi said.
"In February 2022, we conducted active communication. Our efforts to counter such hostile actions were reinforced by the unity and solidarity of Ukrainians, which only increased our effectiveness. Let me give a few examples. The now-famous image of the Ghost of Kyiv appeared on the second day of the full-scale war. Russian fakes -- such as claims about the capture of our cities -- were debunked almost instantly. We received immediate support from every necessary institution. Everyone responded without hesitation to our requests. Today, that sense of unity seems to be weakening," he added.
"I firmly believe we should sometimes go back, at least in spirit, to February 2022 -- to remember decisions like the 'campaign to distribute firearms to civilians from trucks.' Those kinds of bold approaches in identifying and implementing information strategies proved quite effective You can't win a war by staying on the defensive. Ukrainian strategic communications must therefore become more aggressive -- more offensive," Cherevatyi concluded.
