Poland will be invaded by an ‘enemy power from the east’, causing confusion and division among the inhabitants, unleashing a hybrid war. Such a task is solved by the NATO exercise ‘Powerful Word 2024’, also with the participation of Slovaks.
11.10.2024 01:00
Photo: SITA/AP, Kin Cheung
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leaves 10 Downing Street after meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in London, Thursday, October 10, 2024.
Highlights
- The war in Ukraine lasts 961 days
1:00 At the beginning of October, the Libavá military training area near Olomouc in the Czech Republic was transformed into the battlefield of a hybrid war, in which false information, enemy propaganda and psychological operations are used instead of weapons. Soldiers from the Czech Republic, the United States, Slovakia, Germany, Hungary and other countries rehearse for action following the invasion of Poland by an enemy power from the east, as the enemy unleashed a hybrid campaign in Central Europe. The plot is based on experiences from Ukraine. The international exercise ‘Powerful Word 2024’ ends on Friday, the Czech Republic is still tied. Ivo Zelinka, commander of the 91st information warfare group, told journalists today.
Soldiers on exercises face the spread of propaganda and false information, sabotage, riots, migration waves and psychological operations. The enemy power aims to bring confusion and division into the ranks of the population and allies. According to Zelink, the scenario of the exercise was based on the fact that a fictitious Eastern power in Poland is trying to break through to Kaliningrad in order to create a land corridor to it. At the same time, the aggressor is attacking the Polish interior towards Warsaw. Through Central Europe, including the Czech Republic, allied reinforcements from the armies of NATO member states are flowing into Poland, and the enemy is launching hybrid attacks in this region in order to disrupt the organization of military aid as much as possible.
“He would use special forces, he would use the militia and maybe he would also abuse some ethnic groups. Of course, he would also use the means of information warfare. We are working with all these scenarios,” said Zelinka.
According to Zelink, the plot of the military exercise in Libavá is based on realistic experiences from Ukraine, which was militarily invaded by Russia in February 2022 and then developed hybrid operations aimed at NATO member countries as well. Therefore, in recent years, the Czech army has focused on fighting hybrid threats.
“The information and cyber forces, whose headquarters are located in Brno, are intended for this,” said Zelinka. Two units focused on this activity include hundreds of soldiers. They specialize in disseminating information about events in the army on social networks, monitoring the information space, psychological operations, military cooperation, and also in creating content for, for example, information and promotional campaigns. “When you imagine a very capable marketing agency, whose workers are sometimes shot at and have to live in the forest, that’s us,” remarked Zelinka.
If the military exercise scenario were to become a reality, part of the members of these two units would focus on psychological operations against enemy units approaching the borders. For this, it would use, for example, leaflets, radio broadcasts, information disseminated in cyberspace or special loudspeakers placed on combat vehicles, which can be used to broadcast the loud roar of tanks or unpleasant sounds and thus demoralize enemy units. “The second line is then based on the support of our own population, which we would protect against enemy propaganda,” said Zelinka.
According to Zelink, the Czech Republic is not losing in the hybrid war led by Russia, but it is not winning either. “It’s simply a draw now. For this task, the Czech state has not only the army, but also other forces, such as the secret services. If we are talking about the resilience of society, other ministries suddenly come into play here, for example the Ministry of Education,” said Zelinka.
According to him, a model could be Finland, which, after the Russian annexation of Crimea, focused on ensuring that the inhabitants do not succumb so easily to enemy propaganda. “They worked on it for ten years through education, and now it is the most resistant company to Russian disinformation within NATO. Finland is even so successful that the branch of (Russian news portal) Sputnik was closed because it was not showing any results. There is a branch of Sputnik in the Czech Republic,” added Zelinka.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
