According to Britannica, when we talk about psychological warfare, we are referring to tactics aimed at reducing the opponent’s morale and will to fight in the context of a warlike conflict. These may include strategies related to fear, intimidation, deception, or surprise.
The distortion of reality and the manipulation of prisoners of war beliefs are also framed as techniques that can be considered a form of psychological warfare.
In the 21st century, war is not just physical and takes place on the battlefield, so it is important to reflect on how Ukraine uses psychological warfare against Russian fighters, and how each country in this conflict treats its own defectors.
Although often considered a modern invention, psychological warfare is not something new. The military has long used psychological warfare to gain an advantage over opponents, allowing them to achieve more without risking the lives of their soldiers or valuable weaponry. It is also used as a tool to intimidate the opposing side, with the aim of making them delay or abandon military intervention, which can lead to high levels of desertion, as is the case in the Ukrainian conflict.
We must remember that since the start of the conflict, thousands of men of military age from both sides have fled abroad to avoid being called up to war. Among those enlisted, there has been a massive desertion of soldiers, accompanied by legal challenges from those fired from the armed forces and fear in the families of those sent to the front lines.
Psychological warfare is a common tool of modern military planning, and most of the world’s modern armies have specialized units trained and equipped for this type of warfare. In this way, the Ukrainians are knowing how to wage a war of this century, which is half on the Internet, taking advantage of the moral weakness of the adversary to gain ground without using weapons. This new approach has worked extremely well because it preempts Russian attempts to rewrite history.
And it is that, from a defense point of view, the Ukrainians have more reasons to go to war against Russia. More Russian officers disagree with the war they have been drawn into by their leader than Ukrainian soldiers, whose involvement is understood as a response to this unwarranted intrusion, motivated by the pretext of defending their country and its people, and prevent it from being destroyed.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, a deserter is a member of the armed forces who, facing the enemy or not, escapes from his position to evade his obligations; that is, he abandons the troops or his post. International Humanitarian Law, which applies in the context of armed conflicts, does not contain provisions relating specifically to deserters. However, this does not mean that they do not have some legal protection.
If the deserter goes over to the enemy, the enemy must treat him as a prisoner of war. However, although they are often welcomed with open arms by the forces to which they defect, this branch of International Law does not prohibit their being sentenced, since before deserting, they fought on the opposite side.
When Russia attacked Ukraine last year in February, all Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 were called up or joined the reserve. With the exception of widowed parents or children with disabilities, men of military age have not been allowed to leave the country since the start of the invasion. However, not all Ukrainians or Russians support military service: many have tried to leave to avoid enlistment, as well as not to be separated from their families.
According to the guidelines of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), States have the right to require citizens to perform military service and this, in itself, does not violate the rights of an individual. Likewise, the document specifies that the possibility of demonstrable conscientious objection must be maintained.
Conscientious objection to military service refers to an objection to such service that “emanates from principles and reasons of conscience, including deep convictions based on religious, moral, ethical, humanitarian or similar grounds”. Such an objection is not limited to outright conscientious objectors, that is, those who oppose all use of the armed forces or participation in all wars. It also includes those who believe that “the use of force is justified in some cases, but not in others, and that it is therefore necessary to oppose military service in those other cases.”
As detailed by the UNHCR, this conscientious objection of an individual “can be expressed through desertion or evasion of military service.” However, the fact of deserting or avoiding military service is not synonymous with conscientious objection like other motivations, since fear of military service or the conditions of this service may be involved.
Although the Kremlin has repeatedly declared that the partial mobilization of more than 300,000 reservists called by Russian President Vladimir Putin in September has ended, different reports indicate that this is not the case. The reality is that the low morale of the Russian forces, coupled with the extremely high casualties, is causing high desertion rates.
Hundreds of Russian soldiers have fled the fighting in Ukraine or refused to participate during the early stages of the war. According to Ukrainian military reports, seen by The Wall Street Journal, military analysts and Ukrainian officials say there have been thousands of defections.
While more than 95,000 Russian soldiers have lost their lives since the invasion of Ukraine began, according to Zelensky’s own troops, there are others who accept their defeat and prefer not to die on the front lines. To this end, Ukraine has enabled numerous options that allow Russian soldiers to surrender and not risk execution for high treason.
One of these techniques consists of sending a drone that guides the deserting Russian soldiers through the area that they must circulate so as not to be seen and that they can take cover before going over to the Ukrainian side to be captured. There are already images of soldiers who have done it and it could become a route to follow for future soldiers who have in mind to surrender and do not want to continue fighting for Vladimir Putin and the Chechen troops led by Ramzan Kadyrov.
On September 19, just two days before the Russian president announced the recruitment of 300,000 military reservists, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense initially published the creation of the “Hochu Zhit” website I want to live”, in English.
This initiative was born as a result of various reports that attest to the appalling Russian military conditions. It was then that Ukraine sought to take advantage of its advantageous position to “tempt” Russian soldiers with a dignified surrender in the face of the terrible prospect of dying on the front lines.
This is not the first time that the invaded country has used the Internet to attract Russian soldiers. A few months ago, it was leaked how Ukrainian cyber groups posed as women on Tinder, to capture the attention of the Russian military. In this way they managed to discover their location, and thus they bombarded or attacked them.
However, just a month after its launch, the Ukrainian media outlet, the Kyiv Independent, reported that the Russian government had banned Russian citizens from accessing the web. According to kyiv, the page had received more than 2,000 requests in just one week from members of the Russian military to leave their posts and voluntarily surrender to Ukrainian forces.
The platform claims to comply with the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment due to prisoners of war. In addition, it offers: assistance and surveillance of the conditions of stay of prisoners of war by the International Committee of the Red Cross and legal support from other international organizations, three meals a day, medical care, and the possibility of both regular communication with relatives , exchange for servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who are in captivity in the Russian Federation, and apply for asylum in Ukraine or other European countries.
Faced with this situation, the Roskomsvoboda Project (Russian non-governmental organization against censorship) pointed out, on October 9, that access to the web was blocked under the authority of the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office. And it is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused an unprecedented cyber war, with hackers from both sides constantly launching attacks.
Given the prolongation of the conflict, some Russian fighters publicly asked Vladimir Putin to investigate the conditions of the battlefield and the legality of their deployments on the front.
In an interview with The Guardian, a Russian soldier who fought near kyiv, Kharkiv and eastern Ukraine complained of being “completely exhausted”. He assured that he had contacted a lawyer and that he regretted taking months without seeing his wife.
There are numerous complaints from combatants about the lack of material, medical and nutritional support for considerable periods of time. As a consequence of these conditions, it is estimated that there are more than 100,000 Russian soldiers who want to defect and some 22,000 Belarusian recruits who have left their country to avoid participating.
There are numerous complaints from combatants about the lack of material, medical and nutritional support for considerable periods of time. As a consequence of these conditions, it is estimated that there are more than 100,000 Russian soldiers who want to defect and some 22,000 Belarusian recruits who have left their country to avoid participating.
All of them face years of persecution, due to their attitude against this war, and hope to find help in the countries of refuge, the main reception points being the South Caucasus, in addition to the European states and the EU, with the exception of Poland and the Baltic countries. However, any visa application by a Russian citizen to any member of the European Union must first go through a thorough security screening.
In Ukraine, the situation of defectors is also not favorable. According to an Intelligence report seen by The Independent, there has been a rise in desertion as morale has fallen. According to a Zelensky aide, he told the BBC, up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers are killed every day and there are signs that fighter morale may be starting to slip.
The report describes the increase in deaths as having “a seriously demoralizing effect on the Ukrainian forces, as well as a very real material effect; desertion cases increase every week.” On December 13, the Ukrainian Parliament approved Bill No. 8271 which, if finally promulgated by President Zelensky, would impose a prison sentence of three to 10 years on a soldier convicted of “disobedience.”
In addition to directly disobeying an order, threatening violence or deserting the unit would carry a potential penalty of five to 10 years in prison. Desertion proven before combat would carry a minimum of five and a maximum of 12 years in prison.
It is paradoxical that while Ukrainian rebels are not a tasteful meal for the Ukrainian authorities, the same is not true of Russian defectors. All these aspects and statements are just further evidence of the psychological advantage that Ukraine intends to achieve at the expense of Russia.
The conflict in Ukraine is about to enter its second year, and although Putin is now calling for a pause, the Ukrainians are better equipped and motivated to continue, and are expected to keep up the pressure. Faced with the apparent Russian dominance and military dimension, Ukraine has managed to find alternative ways to prevail over its adversary, which further consolidates its figure as a possible winner.
