Vitalii Khrystenko
Ph.D. in Psychology, Associate Professor. National university of civil defence of Ukraine
ORCID 0000-0002-4570-2394
DOI https://doi.org/10.52363/dcpp-2021.2.8
Keywords: hybrid war, psychological impact on the personality of a soldier, a veteran, electronic warfare.
The article considers one of the areas of information operations conducted by the Russian Federation against Ukraine - the psychological impact on law enforcement personnel: the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other armed groups and law enforcement agencies involved in the ATO / OOS in eastern Ukraine. The use of military electronic warfare equipment for psychological impact on the military personality on the battlefield is analyzed. Means of interference are used to prevent the broadcasting of Ukrainian television. The military complex of electronic warfare manufactured by the Russian Federation RB-341V "Leer-3", designed for REB in GSM cellular networks, is also used to send SMS messages.
All SMS messages can be divided into categories: "SMS-horror stories" (intimidation and insults of the Ukrainian military. Also, these messages contain an offer to surrender and information on how to do it), "SMS-debt" (messages from the probable bank of the structure of the immediate repayment of debt that the military does not actually have), "SMS-slogans" (various slogans designed to cause distrust in the military to the command and the current government in general), "SMS-fakes" (false information that can cause panic in the military and prevent execution of their orders of commanders). In isolated cases, the Ukrainian military received false text messages with information about the serious illness of their loved ones. In addition, the mobile phones of civilians, who were next to the military on the front line, received SMS messages, which can be conditionally combined into a group of "SMS-betrayal" (they were intended to cause distrust in the Ukrainian military, and especially in the National Guard of Ukraine, as well as dissatisfaction with the Ukrainian authorities). Examples of each type of SMS messages with the analysis of their influence on the personality of the military are given.