They know that information – like misinformation – is as much a weapon in war as it is a tank and a troop. Words and images are often not limited by geographical boundaries, which means that Western allies, in support of Ukraine, can be directly involved in using information to undermine and attack Russia – and vice versa. Live news from Ukraine: “The butcher of Mariupol” among those affected by the new UK sanctions Picture: A Russian tank is burning in the city of Sloboda in Ukraine Suddenly, British and other Western governments allow their spies to share secrets in a way that has not happened in recent times. They know that having a bit of intelligence alone is not enough. What matters is what you do with the information. In one of the UK’s most popular interventions, Sir Jeremy Fleming, head of the GCHQ intelligence and cyber agency, made an unusual series of condemnatory allegations about what he called President Vladimir Putin’s “personal war” in Ukraine. This included a claim that Russian troops, unarmed and unarmed, had mistakenly shot down their own aircraft and refused to obey orders, and that the Russian leader’s advisers were “too afraid” to tell him how bad things were going. Bold reviews, which are guaranteed to hit the headlines, although – due to the nature of the information on which the allegations were based – were not publicly supported by sources or corroborative evidence. In other developments: Zelensky says Russian invasion a ‘turning point’ • Putin threatens to cut off gas contracts if payment is not made in rubles • UK announces new sanctions against Russian propagandists and state media tell Putin the truth about Ukraine, spy leader says Image: Fire burns a building after the bombing in Irpin, near the capital Kyiv Instead, the British government seemed to rely on the credibility of the messenger – one of the country’s top intelligence officers – to ensure that he was treated as a fact rather than a fantasy. Another lesser-known British intelligence officer who chose to publish the occasional public statement from the start of the invasion is Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhul, the head of the defense intelligence service. His agency has also gained prominence by posting daily “information updates” on social media about the war, often pointing to Russian failures as well as successes on the ground. Russian government officials will always try to refute or disprove any negative allegations about the “special military operation” – they do not call it a war – in Ukraine. It means that the lack of evidence for such allegations will weaken their impact on countries that are most suspicious of the United Kingdom. Subscribe to Ukraine War Calendars on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Spreaker Allegations against Russia may also be met with skepticism by those in Britain and other liberal democracies who are not inclined to believe everything government officials tell them. But in an information war, winning everyone is not the goal. This is the greatest ability to shape the narrative – in the case of Ukraine, that means a general understanding of what is going on when it comes to physical warfare and the diplomacy that surrounds it. Image: Military vehicles are abandoned in the Ukrainian city of Trostyanets, in the Sumy region The United Kingdom and its allies also insist that they use information instead of fake news when it comes to Ukraine and Russia. But the reality is that the goal of storytelling is something that can also be achieved with false or falsified data, as Mr. Putin has shown. A teacher of misinformation, he suffocates in all the media in his country and strictly controls all the messages from his ministries. This means that the ability to saturate newspapers, television stations, websites and social media channels that support Putin with fake news to manipulate opinion is incredibly strong. But the ability of words, images or videos to have an impact on their own is not the only factor in an information function. Another key element is the reliability of the source. An increasingly widespread awareness, at least within the Western world, of how Mr Putin is distorting reality means that his ability to influence has its limitations. Stresses the importance of reliability and trust for the British and other Western intelligence services. It also emphasizes the need to avoid any temptation to copy the Kremlin and to lie, conceal or distort the truth when seeking to rely on information exchange to attack an adversary.
