Psyops are Russia's way to save on conventional weapons – DI
Special information and psychological operations are Russia's way to save on conventional weapons.
Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Defense Intelligence department, spoke about this at the briefing "Psyops: Living and Working in the Age of Information Attacks" on January 25, an IMI representative reports.
"There are several D's – destabilization, disinformation, discrediting, and demoralization. If the army is demoralized, it will start deserting and abandoning its own positions. If Ukraine is discredited in the eyes of international partners, there will be no weapons and nothing to fight with. You can spare the lives of your own soldiers and save on your own ammo. If society is demoralized and the government is discredited, there will be destabilization and chaos. This will mean that Kyiv can be taken in three days," Yusov explained.
He noted that the Russians are implementing dozens of such "programs" at the same time. The most notorious ones promote narratives about biolaboratories operating in Ukraine, about Ukraine's corruption and US-supplied weapons being sold to who knows where immediately.
Such operations require considerable funding, but still the sums are incomparable to the military budget, Andriy Yusov stressed.
He gave some examples of such psyops which are less obvious made by the hands of people who are desperate and sincerely supportive of some of the talking points.
"Such examples include, unfortunately, relatives of POWs or journalists who 'throw in' some things for active coverage. The question 'What about an attack from Belarus?' is now asked in every interview. This is an example of how psyops work. That is, they 'charge up' the topic of a supposed attack from Belarus that will be happening any day now and in this way divert our forces and resources from other axises. Or provoke a real confrontation on the Ukrainian–Belarusian border, if possible. This is what the enemy is doing," the intelligence representative explained.
As IMI reported, on January 16, the Defense Intelligence department at the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine warned Ukrainian journalists that Russia might try to use them for their information and psychological operations in the near future.
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