On the battlefields of Ukraine, the fog of war plagues soldiers
On the battlefields of Ukraine, the fog of war plagues soldiers. And far from the fighting, a related and just as disorienting miasma afflicts those who seek to understand what’s happening in the vast war.
Disinformation, misinformation and absent information all cloud civilians’ understanding. Officials from each side denounce devious plots being prepared by the enemy, which never materialize. They claim victories that can’t be confirmed — and stay quiet about defeats.
None of this is unique to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Any nation at war bends the truth — to boost morale on the home front, to rally support from its allies, to try to persuade its detractors to change their stance.
But Europe’s largest land war in decades — and the biggest one since the dawn of the digital age — is taking place in a superheated information space. And modern communications technology, theoretically a force for improving public knowledge, tends to multiply the confusion because deceptions and falsehoods reach audiences instantly.
“The Russian government is trying to portray a certain version of reality, but it’s also being pumped out by the Ukrainian government and advocates for Ukraine’s cause. And those people currently also have views and are using information very effectively to try to shape all of our views of the war and its impact, » says Andrew Weiss, an analyst at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace.
THE ‘FOG’ IS NOT A NEW DEVELOPMENT
Even before the war began, confusion and contradiction were rife.
Russia, despite massing tens of thousands of soldiers on the border, claimed it had no intent of invading. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy consistently downplayed the likelihood of war — an alarming stance to some Western allies — although the defense of Kyiv showed Ukrainian forces were well-prepared for just that eventuality.
Within a day of the war’s start on Feb. 24, 2022, disinformation spread, notably the “Ghost of Kyiv” tale of a Ukrainian fighter pilot who shot down six Russian planes. The story’s origin is unclear, but it was quickly backed by Ukrainian official accounts before authorities admitted it was a myth.
One of the most flagrant cases of disinformation arose in the war’s second week, when a maternity hospital in the besieged city of Mariupol was bombed from the air. Images taken by a photographer for The Associated Press, which had the only foreign news team in the city, appalled the world, particularly one of a heavily pregnant woman being carried on a stretcher through the ruins.
