President of Ukraine has said that among major challenges in countering Russian aggression are the fight against disinformation spread by Russia and preventing Russia from circumventing sanctions. Volodymyr Zelensky stated this in his speech at the annual Swedish national conference “Society and Defense”.

“Today, unfortunately, Russia controls a large percentage of the information space. And I’m not talking about Ukraine here, but about social media everywhere in the civilized world: Europe, the United States, the UK, the African continent and Latin America. Russia invests a lot of money in various media in other countries, as well as in social networks.

The independent media of these countries pick up Russian narratives spread by propagandists and present them not as someone’s opinion, but as reality. Therefore, one of the most difficult challenges today is to combat Russian disinformation in the world. It is up to professionals, from intelligence to independent journalists, to monitor it and clean it up.

The second key challenge of today is Russia’s circumvention of the sanctions imposed against it. Russia has learned to circumvent sanctions. In the missiles that were used against us, we saw the details produced in many countries around the world. Unfortunately, manufacturers or intermediary companies in Europe, the US, and elsewhere are helping Russia to circumvent [sanctions]. And I would pay attention to this, in particular the attention of the authorities dealing with sanctions policy”, - said Volodymyr Zelenskyy.