Volodymyr Shcherbachenko: Propaganda is a weapon of war, a weapon of preparation for war

Recently, at the Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo in Pristina, human rights activists from the Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives presented the book ‘The City Where the War Began’.

This is a work about the ways and methods used by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine since 2014. The book is based on the testimonies of residents of the occupied and later liberated Ukrainian city of Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast. It describes various aspects of the occupied city’s life that were reproduced in each new settlement captured by the Russians.

Volodymyr Shcherbachenko, co-author of the book and head of the Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives, spoke to The Geopost about the importance of documenting war crimes, combating propaganda and fact-checking.

Full interview:

The Geopost: Good afternoon, Mr. Volodymyr. We are glad to welcome you in Pristina.  On 27 February, in the capital of the Republic of Kosovo, Ukrainians will present the book ‘The City Where the War Began’ about the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Please tell us about this project.

Shcherbachenko: Yes, indeed, we are presenting a book called The City Where the War Began. The book is dedicated to the events of 2014 in eastern Ukraine. Our organization, the Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives, as well as a number of our partner human rights organizations, have been collecting materials for it for many years.

The book is based on documentary materials, testimonies of more than 80 people, interviews with officials, and press materials of the time.  We collected this data for many years to describe how the city was seized, why it was possible, and how the civilian population experienced this tragedy.

It was supposed to be published on the eve of the full-scale invasion in 2022.  But unfortunately, the full-scale invasion began, and we did not release the book then, we released it later.

At some point, we thought that maybe we didn’t need it anymore, as events were changing and developing around us. But even in 2022-2023, it became clear that the publication was still relevant, because the book deals with various aspects of war, how war affects the civilian population in the first place. These include problems with access to medical care, illegal detentions, extrajudicial executions, the problem of landmines, and the influence of Russian propaganda in various ways through the Russian Orthodox Church, through youth pseudo-patriotic organizations, and through the press. It has become clear that all these aspects of the war, which manifested themselves in 2014, remain relevant to this day.

And, separately, it is worth emphasizing propaganda, because it is also a weapon of war, a weapon of preparation for war, and what is described in the book remains relevant to this day, not only for Ukraine, but also for many other countries where Russia is trying to maintain or strengthen its influence, because in fact the same tools are used everywhere.

The Geopost: How did you collect the data for this book, and how do you think it is relevant now, and how interesting will it be to people from Kosovo who also went through the war, or can it touch them?

Shcherbachenko: We conducted in-depth interviews with people who survived the occupation of Sloviansk, those who were taken ‘to the basement’, those who lived in the city, those who lost relatives and friends as a result of shelling; we talked to those who resisted in the occupied city, we talked to doctors. This is one way of collecting information, another is analyzing the press.

My colleague Nadiia (co-author of the book, ed.) can tell us how she analyzed the hate speech, incitement, how the Russians were creating this atmosphere of fear in the occupied city and hatred of Ukraine. We met with officials, the Ministry of Emergency Situations (now the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, ed.), the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU, ed.), representatives of the city council – this is how we collected data. As for how relevant it is, I think it is, because, in fact, the territory of Kosovo is a territory where a significant part of the Serbian population lives, and Serbia is constantly trying to manipulate sentiment and foment conflicts.

And in Ukraine, it was, you know, on the basis of such a clear national confrontation. But, in fact, when a country that has not lost its imperial ambitions tries to manipulate a part of the population, including through propaganda, the creation of structures in these territories that they are trying to take away… I can draw a lot of parallels between what Russia has been doing and what it continues to do in the temporarily occupied territories in Ukraine.

I mean, as far as I know the situation in Kosovo from what I’ve heard, it’s the creation of parallel security structures in Serb-populated areas, it’s propaganda, connections between public structures and state structures in Serbia and part of Kosovo, and it’s not just a cultural exchange…

The Geopost: In your opinion, how important is it to fight Russian disinformation and propaganda?

Shcherbachenko: Of course, it is important, because it is part of the strategy of occupation, of seizure, of preparation for occupation. It starts not only with preparations of the military, i.e. they accumulate weapons, train soldiers, but at the same time, they conduct subversive propaganda work in the territories they want to occupy.

And this is done primarily through disinformation campaigns, by spreading propaganda, false messages, by spreading some false narratives, by trying to pit certain parts of Ukrainian society against each other.  And this is propaganda, and it is often hidden, people do not see it, it is conducted by insidious methods, it is done by experienced people, they manipulate consciousness.

Unfortunately, people fall for it, believe in some things, I myself have witnessed people falling victim to this propaganda, and when a person starts to believe in it, it is very easy to manipulate them, to oppose them to their fellow citizens. They can take up arms and go against their own state, or passively support the occupiers.  And it is important to realize and understand this, so it is important to debunk these myths and show them.

Huge amounts of money are being invested in these propaganda campaigns by Russia everywhere in the world, including Europe. And in order to counter this, we need to talk about it, hold events, make people aware, help them learn to make their own assessment, to assess what is factual and what is false.  And this helps people to be more resilient.

/The Geopost