I would like to consider the fact that information warfare has become as important as physical warfare.

In the past, wars were fought by leaflets rolled from the skies over enemy territory to demoralize them, but in recent years, Russia tried to control the U.S. presidential election using social networking sites, and North Korea hacked into a Hollywood studio’s server and stole a large amount of data.

In addition to the old ways of spies stealing state secrets, a new information war using the Internet is shaking the world.

The video footage of Russia being attacked by Ukraine was analyzed by Bellingcat, a British investigative reporting website, and scientifically proved that it was a fabricated lie. The analysis goes into great detail, including the country and year of manufacture of the explosions. It was really a combination of childish images and sounds that Russia had made themselves. They analyze only publicly available open source information to expose the truth.

The case was notable for revealing the suspects and backers of the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which led to an indictment by the official international investigative body.

Also, Ukrainians are resisting by utilizing Telegram, a chat App that they usually use, to report and post each other on the situation of Russian troops and prepare Molotov cocktails, but this App is actually made in Russia. It is assumed that it will not be available in a few days. 2014, when young people in Hong Kong opposed the regime and staged the Umbrella Revolution, they were unable to use any internet, but they were able to communicate through FireChat, a smartphone communication system with 10-meter intervals. Peer-to-peer exchanges will be activated in Ukraine in the future.

The only recourse in the information war seems to be to increase distrust of Putin among those inside Russia.

The following moves also wobble Putin’s footing.

◆ Reference

Russian Artistic Directors Resign One After Another：Asahi Shimbun Digital

While monetary tightening and other military tactics are good, the West could deter war by applying all types of cyber attacks (e.g., gathering capable hackers to paralyze major Russian facilities, providing information to promote anti-war awareness among prominent figures, etc.) against Russian domestic intelligence strategies.

President Zelensky is indeed a former TV personality, and his media training is well developed.

◆ Reference

Ukraine’s President Shows Russia What a “New Leader” Looks Like