Valentin Petrov: It’s high time to work as a unified state mechanism to form approaches for positioning of our country in the world and countering enemy propaganda

Since the beginning of Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine, the information component has begun to play a key role - our state daily faces the complex actions against it, so the counteraction should also be complex. This was announced by the Head of Service on Issues of Information Security of Staff of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Valentin Petrov in his interview to "Security factor" program at "Channel 5".

According to the Head of Service on Issues of Information Security of Staff of NSDC of Ukraine especially topical in conditions of hybrid war becomes the issue of establishing the effective means of countering propaganda, combating the impact on society by the state-aggressor and the main set of measures to implement this are strategic communications. "This is entire range of measures in the information sphere, aimed at ensuring the national interests", - he explained.

Mr. Petrov stressed that the term "strategic communications" is coherent to conventional NATO terminology and has been already officially used in the norms of Ukrainian legislation, in particular, last year it was introduced in the new edition of the Military Doctrine of Ukraine. This concept, according to him, involves at the national level not only public relations but also public diplomacy measures, measures of military-civil cooperation as well as information and psychological operations.

He also informed that last year Staff of NSDC of Ukraine started the active work with the NATO headquarters on the issue of adoption of Partnership on strategic communications and partners of Ukraine in the Alliance are supporting and aiding our country in its information struggle against the aggressor. In particular, Valentin Petrov pointed out that in 2015 during the visit of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to Ukraine a key policy paper was adopted - "Strategic Communications Partnership Road Map between the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and the NATO International Staff", which was signed by Jens Stoltenberg and Oleksandr Turchynov.

"This document envisages the intensification of our cooperation, and gives us access, primarily, to intellectual potential of NATO member countries in this area. The signing of this document became a kind of impetus, after what the relevant interagency plan to implement it was approved. We used this occasion as a locomotive for further developments in the field of strategic communications", - the Head of Service on Issues of Information Security of Staff of NSDC of Ukraine stated.

According to him, since Ukraine is in a state of repelling the hybrid aggression, the countermeasures, particularly in the information component, should be organized properly. "That's why we provide maintaining of information security and combating of enemy propaganda", - Mr. Petrov emphasized.

At the same time, Head of Service on Issues of Information Security of Staff of NSDC of Ukraine noted that strategic communications are an auxiliary tool in the implementation of national security policy, particularly, in military and foreign policy spheres.

"Since the beginning of the hybrid war against Ukraine, it became clear that the information component is if not a decisive one, then the one that plays a key role. Therefore, the time of unsystematic uncoordinated actions is passing away, we should work as a unified state mechanism, formulate a consolidated national narrative, form common approaches to counter propaganda and for positioning of our state in the world as well as for shaping the worldview of citizens", - Mr. Petrov said. He explained that since Ukraine is now constantly facing the complex actions, then the counteraction should also be complex - taking into account features of different social groups, various social strata and audiences.

"Our goal is to create an efficient, reliable and effective tool, which will help our diplomats and government officials to promote interests of our country, or our military to fulfill tasks in the area of ATO on repelling the aggression and combating terrorist groups", - Valentin Petrov concluded.