Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held a meeting in the ad hoc center on the state information security and countering Russian propaganda, where the system was launched aimed at jamming Russian propaganda in Donbas.
The president informed that the National Security and Defense Council, along with the Ministry of Information Policy, Rada national security and defense committee, National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council, and Security Service of Ukraine had developed and implemented the system to block anti-Ukrainian broadcasts in the war area.
"We will protect Ukrainians from the 'information poison' coming from the Russian Federation," Poroshenko said, emphasizing the importance of Thursday's decision made by the Parliament "in protecting the territorial integrity in both the religious and confessional sense" (referring to the Appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch on granting the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church), the president's press service reports..
"I congratulate you on the beginning of the effective functioning of the system of countering anti-Ukrainian broadcast in the war area. I am convinced that today this is a significant milestone, a significant progress in protecting Ukraine from the factors of Russian hybrid aggression, and I thank you all for your work," the president said.
The system of complex countering Russian information aggression in the war area blocks analog and digital TV signals of more than 40 Russian and pro-Russian TV channels in Donbas. It is aimed to fight Russia's information expansion and propaganda in the war area, allowing to protect in the information domain the Ukrainian citizens living in more than 150 inhabited settlements along the contact line.
Read alsoRussian electronic warfare station discovered in Donbas, says TymchukThe president instructed responsible officials to guarantee a reliable protection of both the jamming system and Ukrainian transmitters enabling Ukrainian broadcasts across the temporarily occupied areas.
"It is about conveying a signal of Ukrainian media that can be considered today as a vaccination against Russian propaganda. The assistance of foreign partners who gave us these transmitters is as important as the provision of lethal weapons, as it is a key system of protecting Ukraine's sovereignty from hybrid aggression."
"We cannot be carefree here, we cannot but deliver a corresponding reaction from the Ukrainian state to the threats and challenges we are facing today. First of all, to date, this poison comes from the occupied territory, from the east of our country to ensure the distribution of Russian propaganda to citizens of Ukraine living near the contact line – in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhia regions," the president emphasized. According to the Ukrainian leader, these signals are spread via radio transmitters located just along the contact line.
Poroshenko is going to visit Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the nearest time. "I will personally check the quality of the Ukrainian broadcasting in the war area," he said.
Read alsoUkraine to expand TV, radio broadcasts across CrimeaThe president instructed NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov to work out the issue of locating such counteraction systems not only in Donbas, but also in the areas with the highest risk of such threats.
"We must consider an opportunity of applying such technology not only along the Ukraine-Russia border, but also along the uncontrolled area of the Ukraine-Moldova border in Transnistria," he said.
"There is also a possibility of information sabotage in Odesa region. Peace and stability of Odesa region are also a priority for us," Poroshenko added.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on February 9, 2018, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko enacted a decision by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine of January 26, 2018, to introduce additional measures to counteract Russia's information aggression.
