New policy paper on “Communications Strategy as an Instrument for the Reintegration of the non-government controlled areas of the Donbas” released
A new policy paper on “Communications Strategy as an Instrument for the Reintegration of the non-government controlled areas of the Donbas“ has been released in the framework of the project “Think Tanks in Ukraine: Strengthening expertise and promoting European cooperation“. This project is led by the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) in cooperation with the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation (DIF), and is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.
The author, Yelizaveta Rekhtman, an expert at the Donetsk organization “Committee of voters of Ukraine” and the “Thinktank Donbas“, analyses possible reasons for the information vacuum in the non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk oblast, and how this situation influences the intensity of the relationship between Ukraine and the residents of these areas. In one of the recommendations, the author highlights the importance of the creation of a state communication strategy, which could counteract the information vacuum and create the conditions to clarify state policy in the aforementioned region. Such a strategy would include the explanation of scenarios for the reintegration and development of those areas, and would provide a basis for the calming of social tensions and increasing of loyalty to Ukraine. In terms of the agreements resulting from the Minsk and Normandy Formats, the existence of a space with free and competitive information – as well as security and the establishment of full control over Ukraine’s border with the Russian Federation – is a requisite precondition for the implementation of elections in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Such an exchange of information will allow the citizens of these regions that are not controlled by Ukraine to make a deliberate and willful choice.
The complete policy paper can be found in German as a PDF file.