How Russians Deepen Divisions in Ukrainian Society

Explore how Russian information warfare exploits internal societal divisions to weaken Ukraine through this 47-minute conference talk from Datenspuren 2025. Examine the colonial historical roots that make Ukrainian society susceptible to internal conflicts and discover how Russians systematically leverage these pre-existing fault lines during wartime to destabilize the country from within. Learn about research conducted primarily by NGO CAT-UA (Communication Analysis Team - Ukraine) focusing on 2022 when Russia's full-scale invasion began, analyzing how initial Ukrainian unity gradually gave way to traditional internal disputes that Russians then exploited. Understand the sociological foundations of Ukrainian internal conflicts, tracing back to the lack of independent state-building experience prior to 1991, and how this manifests in extensive online debates that Ukrainians humorously suggest should be UNESCO cultural heritage. Discover which dividing lines Russians can effectively identify and exploit versus those they cannot, where their influence campaigns succeed and where they fail, based on comprehensive analysis of online content. Gain insights into information warfare techniques that could potentially be applied to other nations with similar internal divisions, making this research relevant beyond the Ukrainian context.