The purpose of the article is to explore the basic principles of information policy formation in Ukraine in the context of hybrid information warfare; identification of features and problems of information policy and its impact on the public administration system. The results of the study show that since the beginning of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine and the widespread hybrid information war, the state’s information policy has changed its vectors and priorities. Confirmation of this was the adoption of a number of legislative documents, which identified the external enemy of the aggressor and outlined directions for the protection of national interests. It is analyzed that one of the main tasks in the information confrontation of the hybrid war is the formation of appropriate information policy and information security. It was pointed out that in the conditions of a hybrid war, a systematic approach should be devised to adequately respond to the state’s power structures to the challenges related to information confrontation. In order to minimize the spread of manipulative influences in the national information space, the formation of practical mechanisms for implementing the country’s information policy, establishing communication with civil society and raising the overall level of media literacy of society is a necessary question.

Communicative Dimension of Formation and Promotion of the State`s Public Image

Within the framework of the author’s scientific research, three types of communicative models of the world’s states were identified, which reflect the basic principles of building state information policy and reflect the key characteristics of the political system. Among them are subsidiary, vertical, and transitional models. The institutional method was used to prove the specifics of the state as a political institution that is the bearer of national images, as well as the role and degree of influence of public policy on the formation of ideas about the state in the external information space, on the policy of promoting and transforming these images, with an emphasis on the actions of those states that shape the global political discourse of today. The authors propose an integral model of state’s public image formation, which provides for the synergy of actors of public diplomacy. The result of its implementation is the formation of the components of the state image (regional, multicultural, culinary, educational, expert) together with official products (national symbols, reputation characteristics, socio-economic development indicators, rating indicators and e-diplomacy products) «from below». Both the central government and local communities in the context of the implementation of «bottom-up» policy should be involved in the realization of a successful image formation policy. The authors emphasize that the policy of state’s image formation in the external information space should be considered as a multifaceted component of the foreign policy of the state. The tools, channels and subjects of formation and adjustment of the stateʼs image should be embedded in each of the vectors of foreign policy- in security, diplomatic, economic, social, legal, and directly information vectors.

The subject of Ukraine’s national security has been continuously receiving a new discourse considering the uncovered aggression of the Russian Federation ongoing since 2014, followed by the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of Eastern regions of the country. As a result of agression, the governmental agencies of Ukraine adopted several strategic documents that directly relate to such a component of national security as information. The Information Security Strategy, adopted by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine in December 2021, defines priorities in information security, particularly identifying current challenges and threats to Ukraine’s national security in the information sphere. The Strategy also sets strategic goals and objectives aimed at counteracting such threats. An unprovoked full-scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine on 24 February 2022 proves that the information space becomes a combat field in the reality of war. The Russian federative propaganda machine is fueling the conflict as well as the high levels of support of brutal actions of the state’s president Putin (according to various sources from 51% to 71% of Russians support war in Ukraine). This, as well as the generally increasing role of the information factor in modern spaces of society, incurs the relevance of the research topic. The article aims to systematically determine the features of the conceptual and applied aspects of the information security of Ukraine. The realisation of the purpose identified assumes achievement of the following objectives:
1. Identify the key characteristics of the information space of Ukraine.
2. Determine the characteristics of risks, challenges and threats in the information space.
3. Define the source of the information aggression against Ukraine.
4. Develop recommendations for enhancing the procedure of reacting towards such aggressions.
In the process of solving research problems, such general scientific methods as analysis and synthesis have been applied to identify the factors that have had the most significant impact on the information space of Ukraine. challenges, information threat, information risks.