On May 1, Deputy Ministers of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Galyna Grygorenko, Anastasia Bondar, Taras Shevchenko and Kateryna Chuyeva held a meeting with the former President of Croatia (2015-2020) 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 also agreed to cooperate in this regard in the fields of information policy, culture, protection of cultural heritage and digitalization.
In his opening remarks, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy Taras Shevchenko noted: “Fighting against disinformation is a priority task for our Ministry. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security uses its information resources to disseminate official information around the clock promptly. And FREEDOM television channel produces high-quality content with access to viewers in Europe, the USA, and Asia. Through the “Information Rammstein” initiative, we are calling on the international community to fight against 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 Ukraine: 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,” emphasized Galyna Grygorenko, 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. “The information warfare in Ukraine is becoming more and more complex and large-scale. After my visit to Ukraine, I will be visiting the United States and will be meeting with representatives of the US administration and members of the US Congress, as well as with influential policy makers in Washington D.C., New York and Boston. So, a fresh insight into 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.
