Russia switches to ‘combined shock’ strategy - Ivashin
Russian special services are changing the paradigm of information influence on Ukraine, abandoning linear fakes in favor of the strategy of "layering crises" and provoking internal social explosions.
This was stated by coordinator of the initiative group of the Civil-Military Movement Oleksiy Ivashin during the roundtable talk "InfoLight-2026: Challenges and Solutions for the Information Space", which took place at the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine agency on January 29.
"Today, the enemy does not just invent news - he uses real vulnerabilities of Ukrainian society: power outages, mobilization issues, and corruption scandals. The goal of this ‘combined shock’ strategy is to turn citizens' everyday fatigue into fuel for political protest and the destruction of the state foundation from within," Ivashin noted.
According to him, one of the most sensitive issues of national security in the information space remains the topic of mobilization. Ivashin drew attention to the fact that since mid-2025, the Russian IPSO has been transitioning from legal manipulations to complete dehumanization of TCK (Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Centers) employees. "We see the technology of ‘local explosions.’ Through the network of bloggers on TikTok and Telegram channels, any dispute is scaled to a systemic phenomenon. A dangerous narrative is being formed and spread, where the Ukrainian military is perceived not as a hero, but as a threat. This deliberately increases the degree of hatred in society, which is already resulting in cases of arson of military vehicles," the Movement coordinator emphasized.
The special attention in the report was paid to energy terror, which the enemy uses as a trigger for ‘pseudo-insurrections.’ "The scheme is cyclical: an attack on an energy facility - a deficit - a hint about ‘selling electricity abroad.’ Then, through chats on Viber and Telegram, the Astroturfing technology is turned on - artificial mass support, where agents of influence, under the guise of neighbors, call on people to take to the streets and block roads. Such social protests technically complement anti-mobilization protests, creating a space of chaos," explains Ivashin.
He also noted the increased use of artificial intelligence technologies in modern Russian operations: AI bot farms generate personalized messages adapted to the context of certain regions of Ukraine, which are perceived organically by residents and significantly complicate their identification. Among the key steps to counter these threats, Ivashin named the introduction of preventive state communication, the creation of a register of verified channels, and the synchronization of the work of energy, military, and media experts within unified situational centers. "If information makes you hate your own state or army during the war, it was created by the enemy, even if it is based on a real fact. Critical thinking today is the same weapon as air defense," he concluded.
Ivashin reminded of the importance of constant application of well-known rules of information hygiene and proposed algorithms for citizens to verify participants in home chats, detect emotional manipulations and recognize technologies of "traveling actors" in videos about conflicts with representatives of the TCK.
The roundtable talk was organized by the NGO "Foundation for the Promotion of Democracy" with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Ukraine within the framework of the InfoLight project.
