“Guys, get up! We can’t sleep through the war,” Volodymyr Fitio on first minutes of russian invasion

“February of two years long. No one believed that we would stand, but we proved to the whole world that we are a nation of warriors, not slaves,” says Volodymyr Fitio.

Volodymyr Fitio, the head of the public relations service of the Land Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) information service about the powerful informational resistance to enemy propaganda during these two years of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At the beginning of a large-scale war, very quick decisions were made, and responsibility was taken for them.

Back then, at the very beginning, the so-called Ghost of Kyiv quickly became an urban legend, the personification of an ace Ukrainian pilot who bravely resisted russian troops and successfully destroyed enemy aircraft. In fact, it was a collective image of the pilots of the 40^th Tactical Aviation Brigade. However, many people believed in the existence of the mysterious hero thanks to the work of the press officers of the Ground Forces.

Information struggle and resistance to enemy propaganda then played not the last role, says Volodymyr Fitio.

“I’m a random person in the army.”

Volodymyr Fitio currently heads the Public Relations Service of the Ground Forces Command. He made a career in the Armed Forces of Ukraine unexpectedly for himself.

“We showed what the army as much as it was possible.”

During these two years, thanks to the work of Volodymyr Fitio and his team of associates, the information policy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine underwent major transformations.

The role of information work, in general, and the work of press officers, in particular, is difficult to overestimate under the current conditions. A lot depends on the truthfulness, efficiency, and quality of the materials – from the motivation of the Ukrainian fighters to the provision of international military aid to Ukraine and the formation of a true historical heritage for future generations. Sometimes, it comes at the cost of life.

The work of a press officer is extremely interesting, says Volodymyr Fitio.

But not every journalist can cope with it because the position actually requires a lot of dedication and sacrifice.

Currently, not a single report from the front is complete without press officers. But if for a journalist this is one task, then for a press officer it is a complex one.

Two years of full-scale war were not easy for the information forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But it is not time to relax because there is still a lot of work ahead.

“My greatest desire is to write one word on our official resources of the Ground Forces, on my resource – VICTORY. This will be an accomplished mission! Then we will surely all gather and celebrate. We will post different photos that have not been published before, different videos. There are things in the archives that the world has not seen yet, and they will surely be published after the victory. It will be extremely interesting.”

Natalia Shumak, NUJU Information Service

Photo by Volodymyr Fitio