105Information and psychological confrontation inhybrid warfare
Svitlana KOVAL
Kharkiv National University of Internal Aairs, Kharkiv
Ukraine
ORCID: 0000-0002-8165-5118
khnuvs@univd.edu.ua
INFORMATION AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CONFRONTATION
IN HYBRID WARFARE
KONFRONTACJA INFORMACYJNA I PSYCHOLOGICZNA
W WOJNIE HYBRYDOWEJ
Abstract: The analysis of the development of the situation around Ukraine gives every reason
to assert that today Ukraine is faced with such a form of military operations as hybrid warfare.
A characteristic feature of hybrid warfare is that the information, psychological, economic
and military components are the basis for its conduct. The article is devoted to a meaningful
analysis of the information and psychological component of modern hybrid wars. The content
of the information-psychological component is revealed through such concepts as ‘informa-
tion war’, ‘psychological war’, ‘information-psychological confrontation’ and ‘information-
-psychological inuence’.
Zarys treści: Analiza rozwoju sytuacji wokół Ukrainy daje wszelkie powody, by twierdzić,
że dziś Ukraina ma do czynienia z taką formą operacji militarnych, jak wojna hybrydowa.
Cechą charakterystyczną wojny hybrydowej jest to, że podstawą jej prowadzenia są elementy
informacyjne, psychologiczne, ekonomiczne i militarne. Artykuł poświęcony jest wnikliwej
analizie informacyjnego i psychologicznego komponentu współczesnych wojen hybrydowych.
Treść komponentu informacyjno-psychologicznego ujawnia się poprzez takie pojęcia, jak
„wojna informacyjna”, „wojna psychologiczna”, „konfrontacja informacyjno-psychologiczna”
i „wpływ informacyjno-psychologiczny”.
Key words: information war, psychological war, information-psychological confrontation,
information-psychological inuence
Słowa kluczowe: wojna informacyjna, wojna psychologiczna, konfrontacja informacyjno-psy-
chologiczna, oddziaływanie informacyjno-psychologiczne
Revolutionary changes in power and armed conicts in the former USSR, the
Middle East and North Africa, which have global resonance, indicate the emergence
of new forms and methods used by leading states to resolve interstate dierences and
105
105gl;;
Nr 6 ss. 105–113 2021
ISSN 2543–7321 Przyjęto: 05.04.2022
© Instytut Bezpieczeństwa i Zarządzania, Akademia Pomorska w Słupsku Zaakceptowano: 05.04.2022
Oryginalna praca badawcza DOI: 10.34858/SNB.6.2021.009
STUDIA NAD BEZPIECZEŃSTWEM
106 Svitlana Koval
achieve their foreign policy goals. Thus, ‘hybrid warfare’ is coming to replace the
classic military aggression with armed forces.
The concept of ‘hybrid warfare’ rst appeared in US and UK military documents.
The opinions of experts on the denition of hybrid war are mixed. In general, it is
interpreted as the subordination of a certain territory with the help of information-psy-
chological and cybernetic operations combined with the actions of the armed forces,
special services and intense economic pressure.
The essence of such a war is to shift the focus of eorts from solely physically
destroying the enemy within the framework of a large-scale war to use so-called ‘soft
power’ against the enemy country to cause its disintegration, change its leadership,
demoralize it and draw it into a sphere of inuence.
Hybrid wars have a hidden nature and certain features, namely:1 aggression wit-
hout an ocial declaration of war; concealment by the aggressor country of its par-
ticipation in the conict; widespread use of irregular armed formations (including
under cover of civilians); the aggressor’s disregard for international norms of warfare
and existing agreements; mutual measures of political and economic pressure (with
formal preservation of ties between the two countries); widespread propaganda and
counter-propaganda using ‘dirty’ information and psychological technologies and
confrontation in cyberspace.
Thus, the analysis of the development of the situation in Ukraine gives every re-
ason to assert that today our state is faced with precisely this form of warfare. This
is conrmed by the peculiarities of the development of the military conict, the hall-
mark of which is the absence of direct military clashes between regular troops and the
existence of a conspiracy of the aggressor state with non-state formations operating
on the territory of Ukraine: militant detachments, ‘Cossacks’, local criminals and se-
paratist groups from the local population.
A specic feature of the hybrid war launched against Ukraine is that the informa-
tion and psychological component, alongside the economic and military, one has be-
come the basis of its conduct and the main target in this war is not the enemy, but the
population which is to be ‘liberated’. Also, all means are used to inuence the picture
of events desired by the invader in the international community’s perception.
The article aims to analyse in detail the content of the information and psycholo-
gical component of modern hybrid warfare.
Based on the foregoing, an integral part of hybrid wars is the information-psycho-
logical component, which is described by specialists through such concepts as ‘in-
formation war’, ‘psychological war’, ‘information-psychological warfare’, ‘informa-
tion-psychological confrontation’, etc. (V. Aleshenko, M. Getmanchuk, G. Kovalev,
V. Krislata, E. Magda, E. Manuilov, T. Pashchenko, G. Pocheptsov, A. Prudnikova,
I. Ruschenko, A. Saenko, M. Trebin, I. Feskov, F. Homan and others).
1 G. Kovalev, Information and psychological confrontation as a component of hybrid war. Modern
war: the humanitarian aspect: materials of the scientic-practical conference of the KhNU PS
im. I. Kozhedub, May 31–June 1, 2018 Kharkiv: KhNU PS im. I. Kozhedub, 2018, s. 144–148.
107Information and psychological confrontation inhybrid warfare
According to A. Karayan, the most global and all-encompassing of the above
concepts is ‘information-psychological confrontation’, reecting dierent levels of
counteraction of the conicting parties, carried out by information and psychologi-
cal means to achieve political and military goals. Such a broad interpretation of the
phenomenon under consideration makes it possible to cover information and psycho-
logical actions carried out:
– at dierent levels (interstate or strategic, operational and tactical);
–both in peacetime and in wartime;
–both in the informational and in the spiritual sphere;
–both among military personnel and among the enemy’s troops.2
Information-psychological confrontation as a direction of scientic research and
practical activity has a long history, although, in a direct formulation, this term has
entered theory and practice relatively recently.
In general, information-psychological confrontation is understood as a complex
impact on the system of state and military administration, on the military-political
leadership of the state, the population, the military and counteracting this inuence
from the opposing side.3
Today, depending on the scientic interest and the subject of research, regarding
information and psychological confrontation in the scientic research of domestic and
foreign scientists, several main directions can be distinguished:4
1. Formation of conceptual, theoretical and technological aspects of information
and psychological confrontation (I. Zamarueva, A. Karayan, A. Lukyanets,
A. Manoilo, G. Pocheptsov, S. Rastorguev, T. Ron, A. Ros, V. Tolubko, etc.).
2. Denition of theoretical and methodological problems of the essence and
content of information and psychological impact and operations (V. Bogush,
G. Grachev, Y. Zharkov, A. Kopan, V. Krysko, A. Litvinenko, A. Mateyuk,
I. Melnik, M Onischuk, G. Pocheptsov, A. Chernyak, A. Yudin, and others).
3. Coverage of the problems of developing information and psychological con-
frontation in the historical aspect (V. Ostroukhov, V. Petrik, K. Popovich, G. Po-
cheptsov, A. Ros, I. Rusnak, V. Telelim, V. Tolubko, A. Shtokvish, and others).
4. Generalization of the theory and practice of psychological and informational
operations in modern local wars and armed conicts (M. Dzyuba, S. Kuznet-
sov, V. Kolesov, A. Matsagor, V. Petrik, A. Permyakov, Prisyazhnyuk, etc.).
5. Conducting scientic research on information and psychological counteraction
(I. Vorobyova, M. Markova, D. Popov, P. Shevchuk, etc.).
2 A.G. Karayan, Information and psychological confrontation in modern war, Moscow: Military
University, 1997, p.246.
3 Ya. Zharkov, Onischuk M. Information-psychological confrontation in the modern world: prob-
lem-historical analysis, Bulletin of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. 2007 /
16–17, s. 103.
4 Information and psychological counteraction in the National Guard of Ukraine (psychological
aspect): monograph / I.V. Vorobyova, Ya. V. Matsegora, I.I. Prikhodko et al. Kh.: Nat. acad. NG
Ukraine, 2016, s. 265.
108 Svitlana Koval
As D. Frolov and L. Vorontsova point out, the modern period of development of
information-psychological confrontation is characterized by its special aggravation
and reaching a qualitatively new level, which is due to the following main factors:5
–informatization of the main branches of activity of most states;
–the rapid pace of the formation of global information infrastructure and its
transformation into an essential element of the life of the world community;
– signicant advances in the development of information technology impact on
the consciousness, will and feelings of people;
–active development of software and hardware for causing damage to computer
and telecommunication systems;
– insucient level of development of means and methods of ensuring the protec-
tion of information spaces and the consciousness of the population;
–imperfection of information policy.
In the system of information-psychological confrontation, which is carried out
for military purposes, phenomena are distinguished that are qualied as ‘information
war’ and ‘psychological war’.6
Today, the term ‘information war’ (IW) is still journalistic and has not yet recei-
ved public recognition in Russian and foreign scientic circles – this is evidenced by
ongoing discussions about what underlies this concept, what is the essence of pheno-
mena related to information wars, as well as disputes over the correctness of the appli-
cation of this term to the sphere of social relationships, which are commonly called in-
formation-psychological confrontation or conict of interest in the information sphere
of social systems. As a result, several dozen dierent formulations of ‘information
war’ are used in the scientic literature. However, altogether these denitions quite
completely and unambiguously single them out from the variety of relations existing
in modern social society. Those social phenomena and processes can be distinguished
into a separate group with the conditional name ‘information war’.7 In general, they
can be divided into three main groups.
The authors of the rst group reduce the concept of IW to individual informational
events and operations, informational methods and means of corporate competition
or conducting interstate confrontation or armed struggle. The most famous specialist
who classies IW as information methods and means of warfare is the Ukrainian
scientist G. Pocheptsov. who writes: “Information war is a communication techno-
logy for inuencing the mass consciousness with short-term and long-term goals.”8
Simultaneously, G. Pocheptsov refers to communication technologies as propaganda,
advertising, electoral technologies and public relations.9
5 A.V. Manoil, State information policy in special conditions: monograph, Moscow: MEPhI,
2003.388, p. 225.
6 A.G. Karayan, Information and psychological confrontation in modern war, Moscow: Military
University, 1997, p. 246.
7 A.V. Manoilo, State information policy in special conditions: monograph, Moscow: MEPhI,
2003.388, p. 240–247.
8 G.G. Pocheptsov, Information wars, M .: Re-book, M.: Vakler, 2000.576, p. 20.
9 G.G. Pocheptsov, Information and psychological warfare, Moscow: Sinteg, 2000, 180, p. 3.
109Information and psychological confrontation inhybrid warfare
The authors of the second group – mainly representatives of the military depart-
ments, both foreign and Russian (S. Grinyaeva, S. Komov, M. Rodionov) – attribute
IW to the sphere of military confrontation.10 In general, Russian military thought has
many points of view on the problems of information warfare, which complicates the
implementation of a general analysis of the views of Russian specialists. But the main
goal of the information war is still considered the mastery of the consciousness of the
population and undermining the morale and combat potential of the armed forces of
the eventual adversary.11
The authors of the third group of denitions of IW consider it a phenomenon of
the external peaceful period of interstate confrontation, allowing the solving foreign
policy problems in a non-violent way in the traditional sense.12
By IW means and methods, Russian authors have information, informational inu-
ences, or information technologies. V. Lisichkin and L. Shelepin believe that informa-
tion war is a war of ‘a qualitatively new type, where information is a weapon, and the
struggle is waged for a purposeful change in public consciousness.’13
A type of information war, waged mainly against social systems, is a psychologi-
cal (information-psychological) war.
The concept of ‘psychological warfare’ was used for the rst time by Dr. M. Cam-
paneo in his book ‘The Experience of Military Psychology’, published in 1904 in
Bucharest.14
The Americans rst experienced psychological warfare in World War II. Until
1945, these actions were of an auxiliary nature, and then, during the Cold War, they
acquired an independent character as a ‘psychological sphere’ of foreign policy. In
1948, the NSC Directive 10/2 was adopted, which obliged the CIA to conduct psycho-
logical warfare. It is still in force today. According to this directive, the main covert
operations are propaganda, economic war, preventive direct actions (sabotage, assi-
stance to underground movements and emigrant groups, etc.).
In Nazi Germany, the term ‘psychological sabotage’ was used, the main tasks
of which were: splitting a hostile state, causing discontent among the population of
a hostile state with the policy of its own government, isolating the hostile state from
its allies, various obstacles in its preparation for war and creating opposition.
The characteristic features of modern psychological warfare are considered:15
– globality – impact on all spheres of life of the opponent, neutral states, allies,
their population and military personnel;
10 S.N. Grinyaev, Intellectual counteraction to information weapons, Moscow: Sinteg, 1999,
p. 232; S.A. Komov, On the methodology for assessing the eectiveness of information warfare.
Military thought 1997, No. 5, s. 42–44; M.A. Rodionov, On the question of the forms of the in-
tsormation struggle, Military thought 1998, No. 2, s. 67–70.
11 A. Shevchenko, Information and psychological operations: conceptual approaches of NATO and
the leading countries of the world, “Social Psychology” 2004, No. 2, s.111–121.
12 N.I. Cherginets, State policy in the eld of information security: state and development prospects.
National security: management and information technology support, Minsk 2000, p. 9.
13 V.A. Lisichkin, L.A. Shelepin, The third world (information and psychological) war, M.: Insti-
tute of Social and Political Research ASN 1999.304, p. 9.
14 V. Yagupov, Military psychology: textbook, M.: Tandem 2004.656, p. 336.
15 Ibidem, p. 337.
110 Svitlana Koval
– totality – penetration into all spheres of life: into diplomacy, economics, cultu-
re, social relations, social and psychological, and the like;
– technicalization – the widespread use of the achievements of science and tech-
nology both for processing the content, methods and techniques of psychologi-
cal warfare and the forms and methods of their implementation;
– organization – the creation of various bodies of psychological warfare and pre-
cise coordination of their eorts and areas of activity (in all developed coun-
tries, they are united into a single state structure).
The goal and objectives of psychological warfare are classied and specied fol-
lowing the conditions for conducting psychological warfare (purposes and objectives
of psychological warfare in peacetime, war and post-war times, as well as during
peacekeeping operations), subjects of psychological warfare (military personnel, ci-
vilians, the higher military-political leadership of the enemy and their allies, as well
as world public opinion and allied countries) and the time frame of psychological
warfare (strategic, operational, tactical).16
In an everyday sense, psychological warfare is a spontaneous, unskilled use of
means of communication and mechanisms of social and psychological inuence by
some people against other people to subjugate them to themselves or create favourab-
le conditions for their existence and activity.
In this form, psychological warfare exists (is applied) throughout the entire lifespan
of a person. Whereas in the past people were able to inuence each other only in direct
communication, inuencing their interlocutors with the help of words, intonation, ge-
stures and facial expressions, today the ways of inuencing human consciousness have
become much more diverse, eective and elegant due to the accumulated experience,
as well as through the creation of special technologies for communication and people
management. In this context, the term ‘psychological warfare’ can be characterized by:
– the political activity of individuals, groups, parties and movements;
–electoral companies of candidates for various electable positions;
–advertising activities of commercial structures;
– the struggle of individuals (and small groups) in the rivalry for leadership in
industrial, scientic and other teams;
– political, economic or cultural confrontation of rival ethnic groups;
– negotiation processes between competing rms or organizations.
Therefore, information and psychological warfare is a combination of vario-
us forms, methods and means of inuencing people to change, in a desired direc-
tion, their psychological characteristics (views, opinions, value orientations, moods,
motives, attitudes and behaviour stereotypes), as well as group norms, mass senti-
ments and public consciousness in general.17
16 A.K. Yudin, V.M. Bogush, Information security of the state: a tutorial, Kharkov: Consum,
2005.576, p. 116–117.
17 A.V. Manoilo, State information policy in special conditions: monograph, Moscow: MEPhI,
2003.388, p. 250.
111Information and psychological confrontation inhybrid warfare
The use of information-psychological inuence (IPI) in Western terminology has
acquired the form of psychological operations (PsyOp). According to Western experts,
psychological operations are understood to be the conduct of planned propaganda and
psychological activities in peacetime and war, designed for foreign hostile, friendly
or neutral audiences in order to inuence them in a favourable direction to achieve
political and military national goals.18
Depending on the purpose, nature, scale and content of the tasks to be achieved,
psychological operations are subdivided according to their level into strategic, opera-
tional, and tactical, according to the time they are conducted – into those that are con-
ducted in a peacetime (threatening) period, in wartime and during peacekeeping ope-
rations. Psychological operations are additionally divided into PsyOp for misleading
the enemy, PsyOp against the civilian population of the enemy, PsyOp in support of
hostilities, PsyOp to assist opposition forces and dissident movements, PsyOp for cul-
tural expansion and sabotage, consolidating PsyOp and PSYO during peacekeeping
operations.19 Consequently, psychological operations are carried out using informa-
tion and psychological inuences.
The main objects of negative information and psychological inuences are
distinguished:20
– the ideological, psychological environment of society, associated with the use
of information, information resources, and information infrastructure to inu-
ence the psyche and behaviour of people;
– resources that reveal spiritual, cultural, historical, national values, traditions,
the property of the state and nation in various spheres of society;
– information infrastructure, that is, absolutely all intermediate links between
information and a person;
– the system for the formation of public consciousness (world view, political
views, generally accepted rules of behaviour, etc.);
–the system of forming public opinion;
–a system for developing and making political decisions;
–human consciousness and behaviour.
In terms of content, informational and psychological inuences are targeted, syste-
mic, time-coordinated strikes throughout the public information space – in the zone of
formal and informal communication, the target of which is:
a) self-identication of a person, their social and role identication, which sets
the general intentionality of an individual and society as a whole;
18 V. Klimenko, Moral and psychological aspects of modern information wars, Bulletin of the Taras
Shevchenko National University of Kyiv 2007, 14–15, p. 105.
19 A. Shevchenko, Information and psychological operations: conceptual approaches of NATO and
the leading countries of the world, “Social Psychology” 2004, No. 2, p. 113.
20 N.A. Maruta, M.V. Markova, Information-psychological warfare as a new challenge of our time:
the state of the problem and the direction of its overcoming, “Ukrainian Bulletin of Psychoneu-
rology” 2015, Vol. 23, Issue. 3 (84), p. 21–28.
112 Svitlana Koval
b) self-awareness as an individual’s understanding of their own identity, and the
identity of the community in society, which are reected in cultural traditions,
beliefs and mentality indicated in the language;
c) basic human values that underlie their assessments and judgments.21
An important feature of IPIs for individual consciousness is that they are unnoti-
ceable by the target person themselves. Experts argue that dangerous IPI for indivi-
dual consciousness can lead to two types of interrelated changes.22 Firstly, these are
changes in the psyche and mental health of a person. Since information inuences,
it is dicult to talk about the boundaries of the norm and pathology. An indicator of
changes can be the loss of the adequacy of the world’s reection in consciousness and
one’s attitude to the world. We can talk about personality degradation if the forms
of reection of reality are simplied, reactions become coarse and a transition from
higher needs (in self-actualization, social recognition) to lower ones (physiological,
every day) occurs. Secondly, this shifts values, attitudes, landmarks and the world
view of the individual. Such changes cause instances of deviant antisocial behaviour
and pose a threat to society and the state.
According to domestic experts,23 45% of the information disseminated in the
Ukrainian information space shows signs of targeted external manipulation and is
a manifestation of IPI directed against the Ukrainian state.
Negative IPI is experienced by almost the entire population of Ukraine, which can
be divided into direct targeting of IPI, that IPI which results from negative experience
(Donbass war veterans, veterans’ family members, relatives of those killed in action,
prisoners of war, hostages and their relatives, temporarily displaced persons and refu-
gees, the population living in combat zones, medical sta assisting the wounded and
volunteers) and IPI through indirect information ows.
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113Information and psychological confrontation inhybrid warfare
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Summary
Hybrid warfare is one of the main types of military aggression in the modern world. If this war
is properly planned and conducted, the advantages of it are as follows: the aggressor country is
not an aggressor of the international community; small losses of personnel (the armed forces
are not widely used) and achieving the goal with low economic costs. The main component
of hybrid warfare is information and psychological confrontation. It allows the achievement
of the goal in full. Therefore, at present, in the advanced countries of the world, information
measures and psychological counteraction is taking place on an ongoing basis and is a matter
of not only military but also state signicance.
