On July 13, 2023, the first meeting of the National Cluster on Information Resistance was held, in which the acting head of the Center for Countering Disinformation Andrii Shapovalov took part.
The National Cluster on Information Resistance was organized by the US Civil Research and Development Fund (CRDF Global) in partnership with the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine with the support of the Defense Threat Reduction Office (DTRO) of the US State Department.
At the first meeting, joint efforts to strengthen information stability and security of Ukraine were discussed. Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Serhii Demedyuk, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Taras Shevchenko and Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Malyar participated in the opening of the event. In his introductory speech, Serhii Demedyuk emphasized: “Information security is an important component of any sphere of our activity. Because the lack of strategic communication allows the enemy to powerfully use well-known mass media both in the USA and Europe, and in other allied countries. The spread of mistrust in mass media enables the enemy not only to manipulate the information factor, but also to prepare for serious massive attacks – both in cyberspace and in the information sphere. We must be ready to respond in time and confront it.”
During the first panel, they discussed the role of information security in ensuring national security and defense capability of the state in the conditions of martial law. The speakers of the first panel were: Head of Information Security and Cyber Security Service of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Apparatus Nataliia Tkachuk, acting head of the Center for Countering Disinformation Andrii Shapovalov, deputy head of the Department of Counterintelligence Protection of State Interests in the field of Information Security of the Security Service of Ukraine Yevhen Sudakov.
In particular, Andrii Shapovalov noted during his speech: “Traditional approaches in the fight against disinformation, with strategic narratives, do not always work, because a significant part of propaganda is embedded in cinema, literature, music – those areas of life that we hardly look into, looking for disinformation. This is exactly the kind of work that the Center for Countering Disinformation is doing, and we block just such channels. These, for example, can be pseudo-historical, pseudo-entertainment channels, etc. But the enemy is making great progress. Their primitive technologies, which were in 2014, are a thing of the past. For them, as for us, it is a matter of life and death.”
The second and third panel discussions of the National Cluster on Information Resistance – “Protection of the national information space of Ukraine: the role of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and its key stakeholders” and “Battle of narratives: countering the russian hybrid war in the global information space” – were held with the participation of experts from the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and media representatives.
