We repulse the enemy IPSO

Fake news and disinformation have no chance!

No matter what, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of our country by the Russian invaders, Ukrainians began to consume information more carefully than before. We have learned to distinguish better where the grains of truth are, and where the information stream of lies, called the fashionable word "fake". And we have become more critical of distorted information. In particular, where they want to manipulate our brains.

The Russian aggressors still do not stop trying not only to bombard the front with their "cannon fodder", but at the same time they are also trying to negatively influence the mood of Ukrainians. It is for this that they use none other than information-psychological operations (IPSO).

So what's so dangerous about this four-letter acronym?

Officially, the concept (IPSO) is interpreted as rocking the psyche, influencing moods and emotions, discrediting allies. That is, it is a psychological war, the purpose of which is to brainwash and shape public opinion in the direction they want. Such operations are used both in peacetime and in wartime. All these are levers with which, in the conditions of a full-scale war, the occupiers are trying to undermine the fighting spirit of Ukrainians and sow panic in society.

Simply put, IPSO is disinformation, propaganda, exaggeration of certain information or understatement of another, sabotage of civil infrastructure facilities, and cyber attacks.

One of the examples of IPSO. A significant part of active Internet users remembers how a viral message about a seemingly critical shortage of blood at the Shalimov National Institute of Surgery and Transplantology began to spread on the Internet. After all, it is there that seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers are brought from the front. The original source of this information was an anonymous web page created in late 2022.

In mid-January 2023, this fake began to spread by word of mouth in social networks and messengers. Moreover, this "news" was picked up by journalists of even one of the Ukrainian national TV channels. Of course, they later edited this information as a pure fake, but by that time it had already managed to gain more than two thousand shares, spread across Facebook and Viber. Fortunately, on the official page of the Shalimov Institute, the information about the lack of blood was refuted in time.

A month later, in February of this year, law enforcement officers in Kyiv prevented mass conflicts between young people in the capital's Pechersk. And again, IPSO played its role. We will remind that an action was planned in the capital of Ukraine based on the example of the "Redan" youth movement, which recently spread in Russia, within which the participants organize a fight with opponents.

So, law enforcement officers massively detained teenagers who were going to organize a mass fight in Kharkiv, on Constitution Square. The police of the Kharkiv region reported that several dozen teenagers gathered to support the flash mob launched by Russia. Fortunately, none of the young people were injured.

Law enforcement officers noted that provoking mass fights among young people and teenagers is an attempt by Russian propagandists to conduct another informational and psychological operation and use children to destabilize the internal situation in Ukraine.

And here's what the occupiers invented about the evacuation of people from Mykolaiv and Kyiv.

On November 5, 2022, the material "Kyiv is preparing for a total evacuation in the event of a power outage" appeared on the Internet, based on the comments of Roman Tkachuk, the head of the municipal security department of the KMDA. It is noted that in the text itself there are no quotes from him mentioning plans for an organized and inevitable evacuation of three million Kyivans.

"The civil defense system must be ready for various options, but this does not mean that we are now preparing to carry out an evacuation," Tkachuk noted.

The Center for Combating Disinformation says that the Russian mass media continued the campaign and invented a fake about the evacuation of Mykolaiv residents as well. It was refuted in time by the head of Mykolaiv OVA Vitaly Kim.

Just these days, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Hanna Malyar, warned about a new information campaign by the Russians regarding the delivery of subpoenas.

She noted that even before the great invasion, information campaigns of the Russian Federation on the subject of "summons" and conscription were recorded every spring and every fall. The Kremlin occupiers always had the same technology. Spin some story where a summons was issued to a disabled person, a deceased person or a veteran of the Second World War.

The hero is always different, but it is about the essence. Or they distributed some wild text of a summons or a conscript's questionnaire. The Ministry of Defense promptly denied this. Now the enemy has complicated his technology a bit and is adding stories about strange places of service of subpoenas and, apparently, a new "wave" of mobilization, etc.

A little more about IPSO. According to the assessments of the military intelligence of Ukraine, the special services of the aggressor country plan to contact Ukrainian journalists on behalf of popular Western publications with proposals to provide information about the state of the Ukrainian economy, the political situation in the country and the activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. What is all this for?

Thus, Kremlin agents intend to reduce military aid to Ukraine from foreign partners and at the same time collect important information about the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the military-industrial complex of our country.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence urged the journalistic community to carefully check the sources from which the offer of cooperation comes!

The Security Service of Ukraine notes that the Russians also like to lie about the number of missiles fired at Ukraine, exaggerate the consequences of the hits and spread gossip "about the evacuation of government officials."

The SBU urges:

do not trust publications in pro-Russian Telegram channels;

do not share unverified information among friends and acquaintances;

receive information exclusively from official sources;

do not take or distribute photos/videos of the consequences of shelling.

"And most importantly, believe in the defenders of Ukraine and help them! The enemy will not be able to intimidate us. A calm and cool mind is an important component of our future victory," the SBU notes.