Video Above: The impact of media and communications on the Russia Ukraine War
Editor Note: This article is being republished from a recent Roundtable.io interview
Two months after the initial invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops continue to move through the country. The world remains fixated on the developing situation as Putin refuses to back down and Ukrainian president Vlodymyr Zelensky appeals for the international community’s support. A panel of experts joined Roundtable to analyze the war, Putin and Ukraine’s military strategies and the role of information in the conflict.
Russian Ukraine War
In this segment, the panel discusses how media and communications technology has shaped the war.
Journalist Beth Knobel notes that Zelensky has been “relentless” in maintaining public communications. “He is on the Internet every single day talking to the Russian people, talking to the Ukrainian people, talking to the world,” she says. “The bottom line is that information is power, and it’s really important in a time of war. Whoever can control the information flow has a weapon.”
“The Russians are trying to keep that information from getting into Russia, which of course they haven’t been able to do. But they’re certainly trying, which shows you how important that information coming out of Ukraine is,” she adds.
Kris Osborn of Warrior Maven notes that the Ukrainians’s decentralized communication strategy has been an effective combat tactic.
“They’re being quite intelligent. If you have one communications hub, that’s a target,” he explains. “It emits a signature that could be detected by an enemy. You can hit it and wipe out their communications infrastructure. They are dispersing deliberately.”
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization and the Defense Editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
