ДОВІРА ДО ПРИКОРДОННОЇ ІНСТИТУЦІЇ КРІЗЬ ПРИЗМУ МАСОВОЇ СВІДОМОСТІ МІСЦЕВОГО НАСЕЛЕННЯ НА ЗВІЛЬНЕНИХ ТЕРИТОРІЯХ ДОНБАСУ В 2014–2018 рр.

Abstract

Work with the local population became an important component of the service and combat activities of the State Border Service of Ukraine in the territory liberated from the illegal armed formations of the Russian occupation administrations. Determining the level of trust of local citizens of Ukraine is considered one of the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of such work. Therefore, clarifying the structure and dynamics characteristic of the mass consciousness of the population of the liberated territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and their attitude towards the military formations and law enforcement agencies of Ukraine remains an urgent task, both from a scientific and an applied point of view. From a historical point of view, such studies have value as the formation of an appropriate research base, which in the future is expedient to use when studying various aspects of wars conducted by hybrid methods. Therefore, the conducted research showed that the majority of the local population of the liberated territories consciously sought the speedy establishment of peace. Answers to debatable questions about negotiations, conditions for establishing peace, the status of certain regions of Donbas, etc. depended on the place and time period when the survey was conducted. Regarding trust in border guards, this issue was also ambiguous and depended on the region. But, in general, the population treated military personnel with some caution, and the level of trust, as for the department, was low. The reason for this can be seen in the anti-Ukrainian propaganda by the Russian mass media, the influence of which continued in the territories on both sides of the contact line. Regime measures, which created restrictions on the movement of local residents and a tense situation with queues and constant shelling of entry-exit checkpoints on the contact line, which were maintained throughout the period of the anti-terrorist operation, also did not contribute to strengthening trust in border guards as representatives of state.