Katarina Mathernová: The EU now recognizes the impact of Russian disinformation much more

Ambassador of the European Union to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernová, stated this while answering a question from Detector Media during a meeting with Ukrainian journalists on 28 October in Kyiv on the eve of the publication of the EU enlargement report.

“The European Union now recognizes the role and impact of Russian disinformation on Europe much more as well as the role of social networks, where information spreads quite quickly.

Now the EU recognizes that a significant part of the narratives about Ukraine are influenced by Russian ones. At the same time, there is less ability to understand their impact and how Russian disinformation actually works in Europe. For example, the fairly well-known narrative about Ukrainian corruption is still very persistent. There is a new Russian narrative that Russia is winning, and Ukraine is losing, and that Russians supposedly have the ability to be stronger precisely because of their narratives, and not their strength,” the European diplomat said.

Katarina Mathernová also emphasized the importance of supporting projects related to the development of critical thinking and media literacy.

“Currently, there are investments in fact-checking and critical thinking in the European Union. At the same time, the EU consists of 27 states. Somewhere more successfully than elsewhere, we have taken, I believe, quite significant steps to ban obvious Russian disinformation channels. At the same time, the latter are still very present in other aspects, so I think this is a process. We certainly cannot declare victory over Russian disinformation,” Mathernová summarized.

As a reminder, Ambassador Mathernová, during the “TogetherWeActFest” in May 2024, stated that the decision of Suspilne to start the marathon on the First National channel was a compromise that gave the broadcaster the opportunity to develop its own product. During the Donbas Media Forum in October 2024, she noted that the EU has allocated €15 million to support Ukrainian media after 24 February 2022. At the end of October in Chernivtsi, within the framework of the All-Ukrainian communication campaign “Together We Learn & Grow. The EU and Ukraine are creating a common European future,” the diplomat said that the European Union’s support for youth and educational programs in Ukraine amounts to €200 million.

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