Since the start of the full-scale conflict in Ukraine, the entire world has been the theater for the largest information war in history. Ukraine and its allies, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other, are promoting their own narratives, trying to sway the opinion of the world community in their direction.

Before the start of the war, Russia traditionally relied on the Russian-speaking audience, treating the post-Soviet space as a zone of its unconditional influence. This also applies to Ukraine, where the majority of the population knows Russian and can use Russian-language media.
But February 2022 has changed everything: Russian propaganda now faces unprecedented competition from Western media, whose tools are much more global and sophisticated.
Such a complex international context forced Russians to look for new methods of information warfare. According to Ukrainian journalists and politicians, the private information company “Ninth Wave” turned into this weapon. Ukrainians say this structure is organizing a large-scale anti-Ukrainian information campaign, which is focused on Kyiv’s partner countries.The largest Western media (Bloomberg, Washington Post and others) report that Moscow is waging a campaign to discredit Zelensky government and is even preparing a coup. Ukrainian media and politicians add that behind this there may be a mysterious “Ninth Wave”, which brings together specialists in cognitive operations and attacks Ukraine with a united front.Based on the analyzed Ukrainian materials, we are able to identify the following technologies of the Russian private information campaign: Formation of a pool of controlled speakers. Work on social networks (replication of publications and comments of a certain direction).Publications in major media (including legacy media).
Operations of influence in the political environment (bribery of politicians, current MPs, representatives of the opposition).
The main goal of the Ninth Wave information campaigns is the illusion of naturalness. The European and Ukrainian audience do not see the catch, while Russian specialists are behind many anti-Ukrainian information campaigns. After the release of a political statement, it is always actively distributed on the Internet, where Russian trolls write similar comments, which creates an artificial demand for the content. Thus, each of such actions does not go unnoticed by the Ukrainian and European audience.
There are two key narratives that the Russians are promoting: no one will help Ukraine, the West has betrayed it (this track is aimed at demoralizing the domestic Ukrainian audience); Ukraine is a hopeless project; Europe needs to get out of the influence of the United States, abandon support for Kyiv and “come to an agreement” with Moscow.
The implementation of such a strategy allows the Kremlin to deprive Kyiv of broad international support, creating a favorable political context. Moscow’s strategic goal is to create discord between Ukraine and the West, after which Russia will be able to impose favorable peace talks.
The symbol of the ninth wave comes from an ancient folk belief that during a sea storm, the ninth wave is the strongest and most dangerous, often fatal. The expression “ninth wave” is often used in a figurative, metaphorical sense.

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