Jānis Sārts, Director at the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, made an official visit to Ukraine at the invitation of the Center for Countering Disinformation of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
As part of the visit, Mr. Sārts met with Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Malyar, Advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Dasha Zarivna, held meetings with the heads of units responsible for strategic communications of the defense forces and civilian ministries and agencies.
In addition, Mr. Sārts visited Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson.
As part of the trip to Odesa, working meetings were held with the head of the Joint Press Center of the Operational Command “South”, Captain First Rank Nataliya Humenyuk, to Mykolaiv – with the head of the Mykolaiv military-civilian administration Vitaliy Kim and Major General Dmytro Marchenko, to Kherson – with the head of the Kherson military-civilian administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, the deputy head of the Kherson regional council, Yurii Sobolevskyi. In Kherson, Mr. Sārts also spoke with local civilians who suffered as a result of the russian federation’s blowing up of the Kakhovka HPP in June 2023.
“The goal of cooperation is the development of joint projects and the presentation of the experience of the defense forces of Ukraine, as well as civilian agencies, in the field of strategic communications. The strategic communications experience that Ukraine has gained in recent years is interesting for the countries represented in the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. We see academic, technological, and organizational interest in our experience and readiness to share achievements of partner countries in the field of education and training, technologies, coordination, etc.,” said the acting head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andrii Shapovalov.
Andrii Shapovalov also added that the trip to the south of Ukraine, despite the russian missile terror, gave Mr. Sārts the opportunity to feel the spirit of the Ukrainian defense forces and the mood of civilians in the regions close to the front line and the territories that were de-occupied.
“We see the great work done by strategic communications specialists in Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson. The contribution of communication specialists to the Ukrainian victory is and will be great. For its part, the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence is ready to cooperate with the Ukrainian side in the development of strategic capabilities, education and the exchange of extremely important experience,” said Jānis Sārts at the end of his visit to Ukraine.
The Center for Countering Disinformation of the NSDC of Ukraine is developing systematic cooperation with the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence from 2022.
The NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence received NATO accreditation on September 1, 2014. It is a multinational and NATO-accredited international military organization that is not part of the NATO command structure and is not subordinate to any other NATO organization.
The main task of the NATO StratCom COE is the development of strategic communications in the Alliance and its member states. The center is staffed and funded by its sponsoring countries and participants, including Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Canada, Slovakia, Denmark, the USA, Hungary, France and Australia.
A key partner of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Ukraine is the Center for Countering Disinformation.
The NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence is involved in the development of doctrines and policies, information operations research, analysis of counter-narrative strategies, etc.
Since 2015, the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence has been headed by Jānis Sārts.
