Ukraine & Russia: main aspects of information, hybrid and full-scale warfare

Abstract

The article analyzes the historical background of the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation, the main aspects and tools of various forms of warfare: information, hybrid, and full-scale. Using the general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalization, the content of each stage and the cause-and-effect relationships between them are revealed. Russia’s war against Ukraine in various forms has been going on for almost four centuries since the Pereyaslav Agreement of 1654, when Muscovy destroyed the Hetmanate instead of the promised protectorate and enslaved Ukrainian lands is substantiated. The roots of Russia’s aggressive policy lie in the peculiarities of the historical development of its statehood, in the totalitarian traditions and imperial appetites of the Russian authorities, in the ideological foundations of communism, and later in the components of the Russian World project, in the features of the Russian public consciousness and mentality formed by powerful propaganda. Russia’s information war against Ukraine began after the collapse of the USSR and its main goal was to return Ukraine to Russia’s sphere of influence, as well as to destabilize the socio-political situation in Ukraine, prevent Ukraine’s integration into the European Union and accession to NATO. As the information warfare failed to achieve its goal, Ukraine’s European integration processes were not disrupted, Russia moved to a phase of hybrid warfare in 2014, seizing part of Ukraine’s territories under the guise of local separatist movements and an alleged civil war. Having not received a serious reaction from the international community for war crimes and annexation of Ukrainian territories, the Russian authorities continued their aggressive activities. Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 – it is a genocide of the Ukrainian people, a confrontation between authoritarianism and democracy, an existential and ideological war based on the imperial ambitions of the Russian authorities, their desire to expand their sphere of influence, and to appropriate Ukrainian territories and cultural heritage.