Defending Ukraine: The Battle for Hearts and Minds in the Face of Russian Aggression

While the governments of NATO countries publicly express their solidarity with Ukraine, the battle for minds and hearts is still going on, both in the wider society of the member states and in the rest of the world. Populist political forces are using the consequences of global inflation and rising cost of living caused by the pandemic and Russian aggression to increase their political capital at the expense of the people’s hardships. Meanwhile, a part of society does not notice that these same messages go hand in hand with Russia’s interests, or they do not appreciate the risks created by it. The media are also not always aware of how the vocabulary they use affects the public’s view of what is happening.

8-9 In June, the conference “Riga StratCom Dialogue 2023” organized by the NATO Strategic Communication Center of Excellence took place in Riga. On the first day of the conference, experts discussed the resilience of NATO members against Russia’s influence operations and information war tactics, the possibilities of achieving changes in Russia’s information space, and what we can learn from Ukraine’s successes and failures in strategic communication.