Abstract

This article examines the main trends of information warfare and manipulations in the Ukrainian media space, as well as their influence on public opinion and democratic processes.  A systematic review of 58 academic sources (2019–2025) and content analysis of 45 publications in Ukrainian media (March 2022–June 2024) were conducted using NVivo 14. In total, 1,229 coded references and 21 subthemes were recorded in both corpora. However, the analysis revealed five dominant thematic clusters: information warfare and hybrid strategies (31%), algorithmic manipulation and digital technologies of influence (22%), political communication and crisis of trust (18%), European legal and ethical responses (15%), and the Ukrainian media space as a laboratory of resilience (14%). The Ukrainian media dataset revealed five leading thematic areas: war and resistance (27%), disinformation and propaganda on Telegram (22%), reconstruction risks and corruption (19%), media literacy and fact-checking (17%), and European integration and democratic values (15%), which together reflect a gradual shift from reactive communication to proactive information security and civic empowerment. The results showed that peaks in discourse intensity coincided with critical phases of the Russian invasion, especially between March and May 2022. According to available research, Russian communication was characterized by the dominance of frames of existential threat, aggressive actor, and political criticism, the Ukrainian media corpus emphasized trust and resilience. The study also identified Ukraine as an important field of democratic resilience, where journalism, civil society, and digital media work together to counter disinformation.

Keywords

Information Warfare, Information Campaign, Political Propaganda, Public Opinion, Digital Security,

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