Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the nation from a square in the capital Kyiv, March 11, 2022

UPDATE, MARCH 19

I joined India’s WION News on Friday to discuss the information battle in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The outlet headlined “deep fakes”, such as the poorly-constructed deception of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “surrendering”, and an imposter’s phone call to UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.

But I noted the contest against more pernicious Russian disinformation: in the introduction to our interview, the anchor cited — without noting the lie — Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s falsehood of “300 US biological research labs” pursuing biological warfare.

The context for what is happening in Ukraine is a sustained Russian campaign of disinformation against its neighbors: not just Ukraine but also the Baltic States — Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia — and Georgia for more than a decade.

The “deep-fake” video was a crude effort which was easy to dismiss. What’s more interesting is Russian disinformation which made it into the top of your program.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: EA’s David Dunn and Victoria Vyshnivska of Ukraine’s Independent Anti-Corruption Commission joined Monocle 24’s Georgina Godwin on Thursday to discuss the information battlefront in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The discussion considers the vital role of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, efforts to counter Russian disinformation, and Moscow’s self-imposed hurdles with the commission of war crimes.

Listen from 2:31:

The brutal answer is that Russia doesn’t care [about its war crimes]. Russia’s priority in this war is to break the will of Ukrainians, and by killing women and children and attacking hospitals they hope to break the spirit of their enemy.