"Call SBU": Ukraine launches info campaign, asking citizens to remain vigilant amid ongoing Russian aggression

21.09.2021 16:30

Ukrinform

The Security Service of Ukraine is launching an information campaign "If you have a tip about a threat, call the SBU."

That’s according to the SBU press center, Ukrinform reports.

The SBU is offering a hotline, 0-800-501-482, for citizens to share information on a possible threat to Ukraine's national security.

The tips received will remain confidential and be carefully verified, the statement says.

The main goal of the campaign is to help the government fight separatism, prevent the recruitment of Ukrainian citizens by foreign intelligence agencies, as well as counter the spread of fake news, misinformation, and propaganda circulated by the aggressor power.

The campaign will last for three months and focus on the regions that, besides the Joint Forces Operation zone, are of major interest to foreign intelligence: Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, and Kherson.

“The campaign is part of the SBU’s systemic efforts pursued since the onset of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. The SBU has been fighting separatism and any attempts to violate Ukraine's sovereignty – in both Donbas and peaceful regions. Our goal is to block hostile propaganda and the operations of Russian agents toward inciting ethnic hatred, creating artificial conflicts, and recruiting locals,” said SBU spokesman Artem Dekhtiarenko.

“In order to more effectively counter the separatist movement and terrorism, as well as to ensure the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, we need support of the alert population in the regions that are under threat of external intervention. To this end, the SBU, together with the Center for Strategic Communications StratCom Ukraine, is launching a regional campaign to inform the public about the available hotlines to share reports of identified threats,” said StratCom Ukraine’s chief Oksana Horbach.

The campaign to counter manifestations of hybrid aggression by Russia is the Center’s first joint project with the Security Service of Ukraine.

Since 2015, the Center has been supporting Ukrainian defense and security agencies in reforming communication practices and building up their capacity in strategic communications.

Among the Center's partners are the Ministry of Defense, the State Border Guard Service, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Government Office for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, NATO, the International Organization for Migration, UN Women, and others.

The project is funded by the U.S. government as part of cooperation with the SBU. The Strategic Communications Center StratCom Ukraine, with which the SBU has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation and Understanding, will be responsible for the project’s implementation.