INFORMATION SPACE IN THE TEMPORARILY OCCUPIED TERRITORIES OF UKRAINE: HOW INFORMATION OCCUPIES REALITY

Abstract

The article focuses on the information policy as well as certain aspects of the organizational policy in the territories of Ukraine, which have been temporarily occupied by Russia after its large-scale military invasion on February 24, 2022. The author traces how the occupation authorities were established and the role of the Russian leadership in this process. Based on an analysis of the priority goals and actions taken to create a new information space in the temporarily occupied territories coupled with an examination of the current state of the occupation structures formed and the activities of the Russian occupying power, the author seeks answers to the question why the local population is particularly vulnerable to information influence in the conditions of temporary occupation.
 The author argues that the algorithm of the information policy in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine includes the following: creating a context and establishing control over the information space as well as forming new institutions and means for conducting the information policy necessary for the occupying power. With this algorithm in mind, the specific features of some newly created institutions, mass media, publications and other channels of disseminating propaganda in the temporarily occupied territories are analyzed to uncover the characteristic approaches to the formation of the information space, methods of influence and methods of communication with the local population. The methodological framework applied in this study, results in identifying specific features of communication by the occupation authorities, its aims and senses, including the key narratives and the main objects of criticism, which the occupation authorities appeal to. Crucially, the author establishes how in the temporarily occupied territories communication is transmitted simultaneously to the local information market in order to influence the local population and to the external Russian market to shape the desired visualization of events in the temporarily occupied territories.
 The author highlights the sequence of the invaders’ activities in the temporarily occupied territories, their information influence on the local population; the groups of methods used to form the information space; the communication strategy for the local population in the temporarily occupied territories.