Former Ukrainian colonel for The Geopost: The war with the Russians is also difficult in terms of propaganda, Kosovo should strengthen the lines of communication

The former colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Sergii Grabskyi, in an interview with The Geopost, suggests Kosovo to strengthen communication lines, as he says that Russia wants to expand electronic warfare to other regions, where it is quite sophisticated in the propaganda aspect.

The former colonel who served in Kosovo and Iraq made these comments while being asked about the Russian systems for the electronic signal jamming that are expected to be installed in Nis, Serbia.

While talking about the difficulties of the war in Ukraine, Grabskyi says that Kosovo is currently in a defensive position and that it must ensure doubling of communication lines.

The military expert sees Russian propaganda as a global problem, as he considers that the latter spares no means or money to spread its messages anywhere in the world. He says that this issue remains a special challenge in Ukraine as well.

Full interview:

The Geopost: Colonel Grabskyi, please tell us about the situation in Ukraine now?

Grabskyi: Well, it’s very difficult to say because, we have a front line, just for understanding, it is about 1500 kilometers. It reflects a front line between Ukrainian forces and, let’s say, enemy forces. And on such a big distance, indeed, we have like a different intensity of the battle clashes. What does it mean for us? Russians right now having prevalence in the strength of personnel, prevalence in the armament and ammunition and having a better connection with the mainland of the Russian Federation launched an offensive since, if I’m not mistaken, January 17.

And you know we have to say that Russians try to achieve their targets but you know the pay, the price for that advance, they do some advance, of course, they do some advances but the price for those advances is very, very high. And indeed, probably you read in many news lines the terribly difficult situation in the city of Avdeevka, in the town of Avdeevka, I may to say, where Russians, following the political demand of their authority, try to push back or surround and destroy the Ukrainian defense in the town of Avdeevka. I may say that the town of Avdeevka plays a critically important role for both sides of the conflict, Ukrainian and Russian side, that is why the level of clashes is extremely intense, extremely high. And as I said before, Russians do not count their losses, they are trying to advance and they achieved some results in a different location in the sections of the so-called Avdeevka curb. Coming down to the south, I may say that there was a location, a famous one, a location of the former town of Mariinka. Now this location may be named only the former city of Mariinka because there is not even one single building without damages over there, and no population indeed. And indeed, one of the dramatic sections of the front line between Ukraine and Russia now is on the left bank of the Dnieper River, where literally 300 of Ukrainian marines and other troops keep their position in front of the several thousand of Russian troops over there.

The Geopost: Disinformation of the special unit in the Russian army, how to fight the special operation by the Russian media?

Grabskyi: Well, you know, the most difficult battle in our hybrid war is a battle against the disinformation and Russian propaganda. You should realize those guys are brilliant, I have to highlight again, brilliant in their proper informational warfare. Because, don’t forget Russians created so-called background of their propaganda doing business in European country, develop their media resources and literally buying some journalist to be like a voice of the Russian media. That is why it is very difficult to fight with those guys who are very well experienced, how to make propaganda, how to use propaganda, how to fight with the propaganda. And what can I say with that regard? There is like absolutely logical thing, if you are dealing with figures, if you are dealing with information or some news, pretend to be information, you should realize that that information to be more or less adaptable must come through three different resources. And responding to Russian’s claims about the significant losses of Ukrainian forces, we should switch on common sense, because Ukraine technically does not have so many troops which Russians destroyed already.

And if you will use official sources, and we have a lot of open sources, you may compare that Ukrainian forces lost, according to the Russian propaganda, much more armament, ammunition and equipment and personnel that existed in Ukrainian armed forces over there. Also, you may imagine that if Ukrainian forces suffered from such losses, indeed Russian offensive operations should be more effective and deeper. However, I may ask you, if we do not observe any significant advances of Russian forces, question, who defends those positions? How let’s say, hosts, according to Russian information, may keep defensive lines in the Ukrainian-Russian front over there. It is what it is, as we call it here. That is why common sense, calmness and confirmation of the information from at least three different independent sources might be like a minimum requirement to filter all of that news, pretend it to be correct information. Otherwise, you will suffer from very well-prepared, well-organized, and very sophisticated Russian propaganda. Moreover, the difficulty of Russian propaganda is they add some piece of truth over there. And that is why it is the most dangerous situation when you are not able to recognize what is the difference between correct information and propaganda itself.

This is one tool because you know, in my language we use a special sentence, how difficult to fight against Russian, not only Russian propaganda. We say “when truth puts on pants, the lie run around the village three times”. And also, don’t forget why it is very difficult because you know Russians do not count money on propaganda, absolutely. That is why do not be surprised that Russians will use different channels to deliver their poisonous messages to, let’s say, customers around the globe.

Also, Russians do a massive attack using their own social media such as Telegram, which is a critically dangerous source of information because you know no one could stop Russians to establish and create many fake channels, and you probably hear that how many channels were simply blocked, banned, due to recognition that those channels are part of Russian propaganda.

The Geopost: Russian systems against drones will be installed in Nis, Serbia, how to protect Kosovo and other countries in the region from these Russian weapons?

Grabskyi: Well, you know, this is a key issue of our current war right now. Why, because of, you know, nobody, literally nobody expected Russian forces could use so well-developed electronic warfare type of the weapon.

And now Russians having a brilliant experience here in Ukraine, they try to expand that warfare weapon, electronical warfare, to another regions, engaging their allies in this bloody game. And you should realize, only effective, coordinated, and well-orchestrated countermeasures, which include like creation of common counter-warfare systems, creating more effective warfare equipment, and using of wide options of warfare, electronical warfare equipment may support you. So, you are also in a defensive position right now. In addition to that, I may say that from our experience, you should understand that you should provide a stable communication and duplication of your lines of communication indeed.

Just one example, the Russians tested their new electronic warfare in the Kaliningrad Oblast, which is a Russian enclave in the Baltic Sea. The result of the test, if we may call it like a test, was like jamming of the GPS signal in at least half of the territory of Lithuania and in the northern and northern east Voivodeship origins of Poland. Can you imagine that chaos which happens there when Russians shut down all connection over there. And you must not should, could, you must pay particular attention to creation of stable command and control system on your territory and the territory of your allies in other Balkan countries, which is critically important for everybody.

Stability of command-and-control system and each military may confirm it is a key point of stability of the defense lines over there. And indeed, you know, only using defense tools you are not able to achieve a victory in any war. That is why you should also think about what kind of countermeasure must be implemented in order just to attack and destroy origin of that electronic warfare, as we do actually in Ukraine, clearly understanding that only in this case we may, in this, to say it correctly, in this manner, in this protocol, we may achieve some results. That is why if you will glance on reports of Ukrainian armed forces about the losses of Russians, you will be surprised to see how many so-called special equipment, has been destroyed during the wild-scale invasion only. And we, as the defense forces of Ukraine, we pay particular attention to the position of so-called raiders and electronic warfare weapons. This is only one way how to do that, but first of all, you must protect your communication and command and control system, your communication lines, to create auxiliary means of communication or duplicate those means of communication and look for counter-attacking items which may support you to destroy that equipment in place in their locations. And it is indeed about good intelligence service as we have it right now in Ukraine.

/The Geopost