30 July 2025
(Photo: Intent)
A roundtable organized by the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security entitled "Ideological sabotage and cognitive influence as a psychological weapon of the aggressor country" was held at the Londonsky Hotel.
The purpose of the event was to discuss the growing cognitive influence of Russia over the past few years. Subversive actions are being taken against Ukraine to suppress the spirit and destroy Ukrainian statehood.
The roundtable was organized by an initiative group of scholars and public figures, journalists, human rights activists, lawyers, religious community, and veterans to counter the hostile intent.
The main goal of Russia's ideological sabotage against Ukraine is to establish an alternative picture of the world through manipulation and dissemination of false harmful narratives, including distortion of historical memory. Failure to counteract psychological attacks leads to growing instability within society and shaky national identity, which makes it easier for the enemy to put pressure on vulnerable topics. Ideological sabotage and cognitive attacks pose a multilayered threat, so the response to them must be strategic and well-developed.
At the event, Pavlo Lysiansky , Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security, human rights activist, winner of the German-French Prize and PhD in Political Science, presented key research themes with practical examples, talking about examples of the use of ideological sabotage before and after 2014 on the example of Ukraine and the consequences of these influences, which have been going on since Soviet times.
Катерина Глушко