Guerra da informação e da desumanização: as estratégias de propaganda no conflito russo-ucraniano (2022-2025)

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the strategies of information manipulation, propaganda, cognitive warfare, and dehumanization employed in the Russia–Ukraine conflict from 2022 to 2025. Grounded in the conceptual framework of Information Operations, the study investigates how both sides used influence mechanisms to shape perceptions and legitimize military actions. It examines state propaganda practices such as pejorative labeling of the adversary and the selective instrumentalization of historical narratives, as well as disinformation campaigns aimed at confusing public opinion through the diffusion of false news, conspiracy theories, and manipulated content disseminated in algorithmically mediated ecosystems by bots, trolls, and deepfakes. The research also addresses cognitive warfare as the coordinated manipulation of informational and psychological environments, in addition to the heroification of leaders and dehumanizing rhetoric, in which manichaean framing of the conflict (good versus evil) reduces moral inhibitions and favors the legitimization of atrocities. Finally, it assesses the implications of these strategies for the conflict’s dynamics and distills lessons for Brazil. The findings indicate that, in the 21st century, control over information and the collective imaginary has become inseparable from warfare, significantly influencing the course of contemporary armed conflicts and the perceived legitimacy of their conduct.