Valentin Petrov: Russia is conducting an integrated information operation to return Ukraine to its sphere of influence
Russia's plans and intentions regarding Ukraine, despite the situation in the east of Ukraine or the change of the foreign policy context, have not changed, however, its tactics changed. This was stated by Head of Service on Issues of Information Security of the Staff of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Valentin Petrov in an interview with NewsOne TV channel.
According to Valentin Petrov, fierce fighting in the Avdiivka zone, blockade of coal in Donbas, the scheme with the engagement of political forces to destabilize the situation in the country, disclosed by the Security Service of Ukraine, the change of the foreign policy vector, Russia's recognition of documents of special areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions, etc. - these are the elements of the common hybrid war chain waged by Russia against Ukraine. "Thus I would consider these events as the elements of a single plan, and the leverage over this plan is not located in Ukraine", - he noticed.
The Head of Service on Issues of Information Security of the NSDC Staff reported that all these Russia's measures are a single element of its strategy aimed not only on the domestic but also on the foreign audience. "In such a way Russia wants to show our European, American partners and NATO partner countries that Ukraine is the so-called failed state - in other words, a country which is seemingly impossible to negotiate with, etc. This is the plan of "demonization" of Ukraine and the creation of its image as a state that failed to succeed", - Mr. Petrov explained adding that this is typical Russian tactics described, in particular, in the works of Russian geopolitics researcher Oleksandr Dugin, - it is the so-called organizational weapon.
Answering the journalist's question on the measures implemented by the Russian Federation regarding information security for Ukraine, Valentin Petrov said that the main danger is the information operation carried out by the Russian Federation to return Ukraine to its sphere of influence and outright anti-Ukrainian propaganda in Ukraine and abroad.