Agencies of the informational-psychological operations (IPSYOPS) of the GRU of the General Staff and the Russian Federal Security Service [FSB] were tasked to carry out a large-scale information campaign to disrupt or substantially obstruct preparations for the 4th round of mobilization in Ukraine.

The operation is planned in conjunction with the structures of the “information war” of the Russian-terrorist forces, created in the occupied areas of Donbas by GRU experts of the RF General Staff.

The main purpose of the operation is to disrupt or ultimately hinder the mobilization [in Ukraine] through a large-scale disinformation campaign, thereby preventing the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations to increase the number of operating reserves, or to significantly slow down and complicate the process.

The Ukrainian reservists and their family members are the designated target groups and objects of this campaign. The task – is to create a negative context around the ongoing so-called anti-terrorist operation (the unbearable living conditions of Ukrainian soldiers in the ATO zone; a representation of the ATO forces as “cannon fodder;” the presentation of terrorism in Donbas as a “national liberation movement,” etc.).

During the operation, there are plans to make extensive use of the formation of “properly
structured public opinion on social networks” with the assistance of video and audio materials and various “eyewitness statements.” In addition, IPSYOPS agencies in Russia and Donbas are tasked with establishing “a direct or indirect impact” on the audience through some Ukrainian mass media to create so-called “secondary credibility,” primarily through the publication of “credible materials for investigative journalism.”

At least two organizational and administrative meetings took place to discuss the coordination of activies under this operation by the Russian IPSYOPS agencies and the relevant institutions created on the occupied territory of Donbas.

Dmitry Tymchuk, Head of the Center for Military and Political Research, Coordinator of the Information Resistance group, Member of Parliament (People’s Front) 

Translated and edited by Voices of Ukraine