Ukraine and Croatia collaborate in the fight against russian propaganda and disinformation
On May 1, Deputy Ministers of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Halyna Hryhorenko, Anastasiia Bondar, Taras Shevchenko and Kateryna Chuyeva met with a Croatian politician and diplomat who served as President of Croatia from 2015 to 2020, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Croatia to Ukraine Anica Djamic. The meeting took place at the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. The parties discussed options for coordinating and sharing best practices in combating russian propaganda and disinformation.
Since February 2022, Ukraine has faced a new scale of disinformation from the kremlin. The parties considered possible methods of combating russian propaganda and disinformation, and agreed to cooperate in this regard in the fields of information policy, culture, cultural heritage protection and digitalisation.
In his opening remarks, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy Taras Shevchenko said: "Combating disinformation is a priority for our Ministry. The Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security uses its information resources to disseminate official information around the clock. And the FREEDOM TV channel produces high-quality content with access to audiences in Europe, the US, and Asia. Through the Information Ramstein initiative, we are calling on the international community to fight the kremlin's narratives with joint and coordinated actions."
"Ukrainian culture is the identity of every Ukrainian. The russian invaders in the occupied territories destroy everything related to Ukrainian culture: they burn books, take away exhibits and collections, etc. And putin's so-called "soft power" in the form of Netrebko continues to promote russian narratives on international stages. We refute these narratives in the field of art," said Halyna Hryhorenko, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy.
The Croatian side welcomes the directions and results of work in this area already developed by the Ukrainian Ministry. "Information warfare in Ukraine is becoming more complex and large-scale. After my visit to Ukraine, I will visit the United States and meet with representatives of the U.S. administration and members of the U.S. Congress, as well as with influential politicians in Washington, New York and Boston. So, a new perspective on the situation would be very useful to strengthen support in the fight against russian disinformation," said Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.
In conclusion, the Deputy Ministers thanked for the ideas discussed and possible further cooperation in the fight against russian propaganda and disinformation.