Key indicators of information warfare Russia against Ukraine

Abstract

The work is devoted to revealing the essence and key indicators of information warfare in the conditions of modern armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine. The concept of "information war" and the structure of such derivatives as: fakes, trolls, memes, messages, narratives, disinformation, propaganda are analyzed.
Purpose of the information warfare is clarified – is to loosen up moral and material forces of the enemy or opponent and to enhance their own that provides propaganda influence activities on the man conscience in ideological and emotional spheres. It is mentioned that destruction which is caused by information conflicts in social psychology, individual psychology, is equal by the scale and sense but sometimes is higher than consequences of armed wars.
Information war is considered as a qualitatively new type of warfare, one of the most dangerous types of weapons, active countermeasures in the information space, which includes: collection of tactical information; guaranteeing the security of one’s own information resources, spreading propaganda or disinformation to demoralize the enemy’s army and population; undermining the quality of the enemy’s information and preventing the enemy’s ability to gather information.
It is noted that in order to effectively counter the information war, it is necessary to regularly take countermeasures. Mass media, state institutions with a clearly defined level of responsibility of each individual executive body for ensuring information security play a major role in solving this task.