How Ukraine Can Win The Information War Against Russia

Some of the most powerful images since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been of peaceful protests. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a defiant video on the streets of Kyiv on February 25, rallying Ukrainians to fight even as Russian forces hunted him down. In Moscow, celebrities, public figures, and thousands of ordinary Russians risked near-certain arrest to protest the invasion. These protests portray justice and bravery—and depict one of Ukraine’s most potent weapons: the power of information. To win this conflict, Ukraine and its supporters must seize and control the narrative of war. Doing so will delegitimize the Russian invasion and undermine Russia’s will to fight.

 War is no longer solely won and lost on the battlefield. He who controls the narrative of war is the true victor. No modern politician understands this better than Vladimir Putin. Putin has expertly deployed disinformation to support his strategic goals throughout his presidency. Putin has expertly manipulated disinformation on traditional and social media to foment political disturbances and disrupt elections in the U.S. and elsewhere. He used disinformation to lay the groundwork to annex Crimea in 2014, and to support continued fighting in Ukraine’s Eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. The U.S. exposed multiple attempts by Russia to create false pretexts for invading Ukraine, and Putin continues to spread disinformation to justify his war. Only this time, it isn’t working. 

Disinformation is no match for history, memory, and identity. This war has evoked the specter of World War II—and all of its horrors—like no other conflict since. It is the worst interstate conflict in Europe since World War II. Iconography by pro-Ukraine protestors throughout the world includes swastikas and compares Putin to Hitler. Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.N. blasted Russia in a Security Council meeting on February 25 for pursuing a “Nazi-style course of action.”  Putin himself has sought to capitalize on the power of the memory of World War II in Europe, using “de-Nazification” as justification for his invasion of Ukraine in a February 25 speech. But this absurdity made Zelenskyy’s response all the more powerful when he reminded us that his great-grandfather and three uncles perished in the Holocaust. Only his grandfather survived, and fought the Nazis in the Soviet army, later to see his Jewish grandson become the democratically elected president of a Soviet successor state.

The truth is on Ukraine’s side—and so is the law. Ukraine must purposefully use law to bolster the legitimacy of its cause and undermine Russian efforts. This strategy, known as information lawfare, would be particularly effective because of the omnipresent memory of World War II. The world forged the law of war, international human rights law, and much of the rules-based international order as we know it to ensure that the horrors that war never happen again.  Every nation in the world has agreed to a common language of law to describe both the rules and the horrors of armed conflict. Publicizing Russia’s actions as illegal has incredible power before the international community. As news of the invasion first broke, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations minced no words in reminding the world how much the language of that law still resonates. In an extraordinary scene at the emergency Security Council meeting, he told the Russian ambassador, “There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, Ambassador.”

Ukraine and those who support it must launch a truth offensive to win the narrative of war, and highlight the illegitimacy and illegality of Russia’s actions at every turn. Russia has attacked the sovereignty of another country with no just cause. It is causing massive population displacement. It is attacking targets without military necessity and using disproportionate force. It is harming civilians. It is causing needless death. These heinous and illegal facts of this illegitimate war need to be the story that Ukraine tells the world. Ukraine must publicize every illegal act of Russian aggression and label it as such. They must document every human rights violation and humanitarian catastrophe. They must act as if they are gathering evidence for an investigation before the International Criminal Court, and delivering an opening statement for a trial before the world. And they must spread the truth in the face of Putin’s lies, until the true story is the only story.

Information lawfare can also be a powerful tool in affecting the will to fight within Russia. The importance of the will to fight cannot be overstated in war. For law-abiding nations, and for all those who believe that the law of war reflects moral principles, following the law is part of what makes war legitimate. For soldiers, believing that their actions are legal is critical to honorable service and maintaining the will to fight. To achieve what they are ordered to do in combat, they must believe that her actions are legal and just. The law of armed conflict is what legitimizes lawful killing in combat and distinguishes it from what would otherwise be murder. The belief that following that law is just is critical to maintaining the will to fight. Protests continue in Moscow and worldwide, and reports indicate that Russian military morale is low. An information lawfare offensive could further delegitimize Russia’s actions, swaying other Russians to protest and dissent, and further undermining morale.  

In the social media era, victors are no longer guaranteed to write the history books. The court of public opinion will determine the judgment of history. Information lawfare alone will not stop this war, but it presents a unique pressure point for Putin. Undermining Putin’s legitimacy at home and abroad will weaken the legacy that he is ostensibly fighting for. Every person who dissents, and every soldier who defects, wounds a leader who desperately wants to be loved by his people and respected by the world. The importance of the will to fight cannot be underestimated in armed conflict—for troops, for people, and for their leaders. The truth and the law are potent weapons for breaking Putin’s will.