OVERCOMING THE INFLUENCE OF RUSSIAN INFORMATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS ON THE FORMATION OF A NEGATIVE PERCEPTION OF NATO AMONG THE POPULATION OF UKRAINE

Abstract

In this study, the Russian information and subversive activity for many years in Ukraine was analyzed, the purpose of which was and is the formation of a negative perception among the population of the opinion regarding Ukraine's membership in NATO. The main process of implementation of these information campaigns, as well as psychological methods of influence on different segments of the population, were followed. Analyzing the facts of the Russian information war against Ukraine, after gaining independence in 1991, it can be observed that all subversive tasks, such as informational, economic, energy, and since 2014, the military, had the ultimate goal of preventing Ukraine from joining NATO. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has opened up new challenges for us in detecting Russian IPSO. The ongoing war for the free future of Ukraine, which cannot be realized in the established geopolitical realities without joining NATO, presents us with the task of quickly reacting and countering information attacks, which, as observations show, have moved to a more sophisticated level, which in the conditions of a full-scale war are the same as dangerous as massive rocket fire. Taking into account all the factors that affect the issue of this topic, we will try to consider in detail each period of information attacks starting with Ukraine's independence, and we will also pay special attention to the work of the Russian IPSO from February 24, 2022. The main goals of this study are to comprehensively disclose the facts of the activities of the Russian units of information and psychological special operations with the aim of comprehensively distorting reality, and forming a false opinion among the population regarding relations between Ukraine and NATO. The main topic of Russian propaganda before a full-scale invasion was the thesis about the so-called «NATO on the doorstep», that the allegedly aggressive bloc has approached the borders of the Russian, and from day to day it must attack, using Ukraine, which is not yet a member of the alliance, as a springboard for subsequent «aggression». After the direct attack, the Russian IPSO began to develop a narrative about «cowardly NATO», that the alliance was afraid and would never openly enter the war on the side of Ukraine, and also forming a false opinion among the population of Ukraine that it did not need such an alliance, but that it was «better» to accept non-aligned status and illusory security guarantees, which, as reality shows, are largely worthless. The ultimate goal of this study is to prove that there is no alternative for Ukraine to join NATO, as the only guarantee of existence as an independent state.