The Fighters

Ukrainian soldiers, bleeding for victory on the frontlines. Polish spymasters, sounding unheeded warnings about the Kremlin’s intent. Disinformation experts, fighting Russia’s pernicious media spin.  Students, organizing arms delivery to the Ukrainian in lieu of their studies. 
The heroes defending Ukraine hold vastly different stations. This war is fought on the internet, in the marketplace and most of all: on the battlefield. From coordinating heavy weapons shipments, to monitoring Russian chicanery in the Kyiv of yesteryear, to blitzing towards victory in Izium, THE FIGHTERS are the ones shedding blood and sweat to defend Ukraine.

A Polish Intelligence Legend on What The West Got Wrong.

A Conversation With Colonel (Ret.) Grzegorz Malecki

Colonel Grzegorz Malecki - Retired Polish Intelligence Agency Chief

Colonel (Ret.) Grzegorz Malecki, is the former head of Poland’s Foreign Intelligence Agency, ex-diplomat to Spain and the former chair of the NATO Civilian Intelligence. Malecki, 55, joined the Office for State Protection directly out Wroclaw University, a hotbed of Polish opposition politics in the twilight days of the USSR. 
For the next thirty-two years, Malecki played an instrumental role in the creation of Poland’s modern intelligence apparatus. After retiring from the service, he took this expertise to Ukraine, where he worked to reform the nation’s intelligence and security systems. He is author of the book W Cieniu, or “In The Shade,” a memoir about his time as an intelligence officer.

I met Malecki in a room at Park Cafe Konstancin, a palatial restaurant with chessboard floors and ceiling height bookcases. Grand mirrors and marble mantles. A sculpture garden out back, walled in by the thick pines of Konstancin-Jeziorna, an elegant suburb of Warsaw, once home to a Soviet officers’ sanatorium.

We spoke about Putin’s war in Ukraine: what the West misunderstands about Putin’s mindset, the failures of Russian intelligence and the critical need to promote systemic change in Russia through harsh economic and political sanctions.

Malecki’s account has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

During my career, I was an intelligence officer and a diplomat in Spain. Eventually, I became the head of Poland’s Foreign Intelligence Committee and the chair of NATO’s Civilian Intelligence Committee. I have had many different roles, but in all of these roles, I warned about the threat from Russia.

The problem was that Western countries did not take into consideration the real nature of Putin, of his regime and his intentions. And obviously, we can’t say “the West” is united in a perception of Russia. I can see that the farther your country is from Russia, the less you are aware. The less you want to listen. If you are in Spain, in Portugal, in France, you don’t want to listen because you don’t see the threat. Whereas, here in Poland and other places like the Baltic states, we are more aware of Russian threat. 

Despite the fact that we Polish people and Polish intelligence were very well aware of the situation—and warning the world—we were not listened to.

Nobody listened to us. The problem was ignored. They didn’t acknowledge our warnings. They thought we were Russophobic. That we were against Russia without reason. That we were the obstacles to doing great business with Russia. So for others, it was uncomfortable and they ignored our warning and explanations.
It was obvious to us that Putin is a continuator of the imperial politics of Russia: from the Tzars and Soviet Union and so on. Putin is the successor to this ideology and imperial dream. We were absolutely sure that he would try to change the whole political and security system of the world. 

You must understand: this is not a matter of Putin’s nature. It is a natural consequence of the political, cultural, historical and social conditions of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 

In the nineties, during the process of creating a democratic country, it was a time of a huge crisis and poverty. For the majority of Russian society, there is a simple connotation between democracy and poverty. Democracy also meant political crisis and chaos, so there is not a good connotation with democratic processes. They are not democracy lovers because of what happened in the nineties. 

Also, it’s very crucial to understand that democracy, for Russians, also means they are no longer a superpower. They are not the empire of the Soviet Union anymore. This is why the Russian people so accepted Putin when, in 1999, he promised to restore Russia and its international position in the world. This gave him great popularity in post-Soviet society.
Putin’s aim was to restore the empire. And in his opinion, being a great superpower does not mean being a developed country with well-off people. A superpower is a country that other countries are afraid of. Fear his measurement oaf a superpower. 

To achieve these goals, he used the methods from the intelligence and security of the Soviet Union. Once KGB, always KGB. He implemented new, cutting-edge technologies that were not available during the Cold War, but the mentality and modus operandi are from the Soviet Union. 

He takes advantage of the open and transparent nature of Western democracy. It’s easy to attack. His aim is to destroy the Western society by using their own tools.

Timothy Snyder described this perfectly: Putin realized during his first presidential term that he would never catch up with the West in terms of development. So he decided that instead of chasing the West and trying to be like the West, he would destroy the West instead.

Western countries’ hoped that if they cooperated with Putin, if they appeased him, he would be civilized and eventually join the society of western countries. They hoped that Putin is not so bad: he is civilized. He plays piano. He wears nice suits. He can be a friend.

This was a big mistake. 
Believing in his lies and illusions and the lack of actions taken towards Putin, they made the war in Ukraine. 

In my opinion, the lack of firmness towards Russia and Putin’s action. And believing his lies and illusions that he was creating in the world…because the response was not firm and believed in his lies. The lack of action taken towards Putin led to the current war in Ukraine. 

The breaking moment, the crucial moment was 2008. During the NATO summit in Bucharest, during the time Ukraine was not decided to be part of NATO but there was a foggy promise of somewhere, maybe in the future they can in a different way or imprecise way become part of NATO. They made these foggy promises and Putin noticed: The west is not united and has not decided to take them into NATO so Georgia and further Ukraine can be attacked. 

To be precise, not only Georgia—Georgia was 2008—but in 2014, the Crimea Luhansk Donetsk aggression found no answer at all from the west. This was the redline he crossed and the non-response encouraged his further actions. The lack of response in 2008 and 2014 made him think he could do everything. 

And as a result? The aggression of 2022. 
My biggest surprise was that the Russian army was so unprecedentedly unprepared for this war. They were not prepared for the war from the military point of view, from the logistic point of view and from the morale point of view. And because of the unpreparedness of the Russian army, the goals that they wanted to achieve—like conquering Ukraine in a few days—were totally unrealistic.

After retirement I was involved, for three years, in activities for many international organizations to reform the security system of Ukraine. So I was among these experts and was a senior counsellor to these organizations. So I was involved in the system since the time I retired. And during this time I was on a daily basis, I may say, involved in all of these operations: I was taking part in reforms of intelligence and security systems of the entire security system in Ukraine.

In December of last year, I visited Kyiv. I witnessed the way they were prepared, the way they trained and the way they organized the way. The morale of the army was very high so I am not surprised at the actions of the Ukrainian Army defending their country.

If I, being Polish and just visiting Ukraine from time to time, could notice their readiness and preparation and the way they are changing their systems and persistence, then Russian intelligence would know as well.
So in my private opinion, I am positive, I am absolutely sure, that this wasn’t a mistake of intelligence. I’m sure that the professional intelligence of Russia knew this information. They share the same language and culture. And we also know that Ukrainian intelligence and the structure of the state were, in some aspects, penetrated by Russian intelligence.

We hypothesized that intelligence tried to pass information to Putin and his circles but they would not accept it. Finally, they said “if Putin doesn’t want to accept the intelligence, we won’t transmit it to him so he won’t be displeased.”

You could see this during the press conference, when Putin asked the chief of intelligence about the invasion. The chief of intelligence was so confused and so nervous because he knew the situation was totally different. 

This is the consequence of Putin eliminating people from his circles that are objective who are, who tell the truth about the real situation. Instead, they were exchanged with yes men who say whatever Putin wants and offer no true assessment of the situation. 
Of course, saying the truth to a dictator can be dangerous and unpleasant. It is not beneficial to be the bearer of bad information. So we can say that exchanging good professional people with yes men in Putin’s inner circles led to this catastrophe.
Simply exchanging Putin for another leader will do nothing. If you exchanged Putin with Shoigu or Lavrov, one puppet will be changed to another puppet. Because it’s not only Putin. Putin is very important, but it’s the whole system of ruling the country. 

The problem is that elites in Russia are de facto beneficiaries of this system now. It’s kleptocratic and oligarchic. And the elite profit from that. So the whole idea is to make them change their minds through their actions. So that’s why we have to put pressure on them economically and kill the wellbeing of elites. This makes them think: “Well, something is wrong, maybe we should change the system because we are not benefitting from it anymore.” The elite of Russia must be convinced the only way is to change the whole system of running the country.

This war is a disaster for the whole world. The consequences of the ongoing war will not only be terrible for Ukraine: the world will be affected economically, and the poorest countries will be affected the most. So the most important aspect is to win against Putin's Russia at all costs.

In my opinion, the sooner an embargo is put on Russian gas, oil and coal, the better. To achieve this—because this is a complicated and very difficult task—we have to effectively change our system of energy security.
It’s very important not to stop the sanctions after leaders are changed. The pressure should be continued until the whole system, cultural and political, is changed. The changing of men changes nothing. After Putin will be somebody else and in a few years the situation will be the same. There will be another Putin. There will be other people willing to achieve these imperial goals. 

Some people may say: “Well, it’s impossible. Russia will never change.” 

But if you take a closer look at Ukraine, Ukraine is a great example of a country changing their Soviet heritage and nature.

Now, Ukraine is much closer to Western countries than it was previously. Ukraine was almost the same as the Soviet Union. They had the homo sovieticus mentality and many of the same issues as Russia. 

But now, Ukraine is a totally different country. So, we may say that the change is possible. Ukraine is the country that proves this theory. Changing the nature of a nation is possible because Ukraine has already done it.

“You May Use Words Such As Revenge.”

A Conversation with Ukrainian Army Colonel Anton Myronowich

Colonel Anton Myronowich - Ukrainian Armed Forces

“We are losing more people than ever before. It’s tough. I can’t tell you the numbers--it will be displayed after our victory--but the life of every Ukrainian soldier? It’s the most valuable thing for us. You may use words such as “revenge.” Every life of a Ukrainian soldier will be paid back to the freakin’ Russian invaders. Because it’s the most expensive thing. We’re not talking about money or infrastructure. We’re talking about lives. We are talking about our women. We are talking about the kids that were killed in Bucha. It will be paid back. And we will not forgive.”

Colonel Anton Myronowich is a warrior’s warrior. The 38 year old Lviv native comes from a multi-generational Ukrainian military family and speaks with piercingly fierce disgust for the Russian invaders. Though he was stationed behind the lines at the Ukrainian Armed Forces Headquarters in Lviv when we met with him, Colonel Myronowich has ducked enough shellfire on the frontlines to know exactly what kind of enemy his nation faces. 

Moreover, Colonel Myronowich embodies the evolving nature of Ukraine and its armed forces. As a career officer, he’s seen the changes the Ukrainian Armed Forces--and culture--have gone since Russia started its war of aggression in the Donbas in 2014. 

I met Colonel Myronowich on a corner in Lviv under gray skies, across the street from a Ukrainian war college. In the forested park across the street, sandbags and camouflage netting crouched amidst the trees. Next to our meeting space (public, in a square), a monument to the Russian Army (a relic of Ukraine’s Soviet era) was in the midst of a teardown. 

But according to Colonel Myronowich, and his millions of colleagues, statues aren’t the only part of the Russian army getting torn up in Ukraine these days.

“My name is Colonel Anton Myronowich. I’m an officer in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I’m 38 years old and originally from Lviv.  Since I was a child, I knew I was going to be a soldier, because I’m from a military family. My father was a colonel. My grandfathers were officers. Now, I’ve been in the military for over 20 years. 
And for the last 42 days, I haven’t had a single day off to relax with my family. But that’s OK: everything we are doing is very important. In the first five days of the war, all of us military personnel were in shock. We didn’t expect the Russians would invade us on such a wide scale. That was the biggest challenge--but it was just for five days. After that, we realized that their whole “second most powerful army in the world” talk was bullshit. It was a bubble. After that, we were more confident than we were before. 
When the Russians invaded Crimea and Donbas in 2014, we realized they did not respect the Ukrainian people. It was unexpected for us, but it didn’t take long for us to realize what we needed to do to prepare for the rest of the actions they were going to take. We did everything possible to make our army stronger.
The military has completely changed since this conflict began in 2014. Before then, the Ukrainian Army was just the leftovers of the Soviet Army. In 1991, the Ukrainian Army was one of the biggest armies in Europe. It was the biggest part of the Soviet Army. We had nuclear weapons, strategic airplanes and stuff like that. But because of political decisions, we had to give away our nuclear weapons and send our strategic airplanes and rockets and a whole bunch of military equipment to Russia. I don’t know who made these decisions…but up until 2014, Russia did everything to destroy the defensive capabilities of Ukraine. They did this very systematically. 

Since then, we’ve changed absolutely. We abandoned the old Soviet Union tradition where no one respects soldiers. The whole Ukrainian population--there is no difference between military and civilians--we are fighting together. This war is making us stronger. It’s making us more united. We’re thankful not only to the government…but to the volunteers and people supporting our military institutions. They understand we’re the same, the military is part of Ukraine and we’re not some isolated institution. We’ve tried to achieve NATO standards as well. Because that is an absolutely different decision making process that should be applied for combat operations like this one. It was very important for us, because it didn’t just make us stronger, it made us more confident. 

And it’s very important that we’re confident in our ability to do our tasks.
The morale of the army--in this particular case, when we are talking about war with freaking Russian invaders--is extremely high. We have no other motherland. We have no choice. These freakin’ bastards--apologies for my language but I’m not going to choose my words when speaking about freakin Russians--these Russian soldiers are freakin’ slaves. 

They have been forced to go to Ukraine to kill Ukrainians. The main reason for this aggression is freakin’ Russian propaganda which is part of the KGB style government they have…it’s nothing new. They hate Ukrainians. It’s all part of their national philosophy. So that when they come into Ukraine, they are ready to do anything: kill people and civilian populations, destroy infrastructure, stealing ear-rings and money from houses. They are looking for whatever benefits they can take from Ukraine. For them, it’s justified in their mind, you know? 

Ukrainians and Russians are absolutely different. 

Ukrainians are very peaceful. We’ve never invaded any other countries. We like freedom. And it looks like the Russians don't like freedom at all--they prefer to be just slaves. That’s why they have this kind of mentality. So when I say I want to destroy freaking Russia, I’m not talking about the people, I’m talking about this system. 
Because I don’t think it’s just one person, you know? 

It’s not just Putin that wants to change geo-political attitudes. We have to change the entire Russian philosophy. They have to realize they can be integrated into the world as normal people. Not be limited by their government and act separately with some freaking stupid ideas about everyone being an enemy. They have to understand they are normal people like everyone and they can be friendly and live together with each other: with Ukrainians, Americans, Canadians, whoever. 

I think anyone who had some doubts about Russians before this war doesn’t have doubts anymore. No one in Ukraine is going to forgive them. We have no choice. We have to defend our motherland. We have to defend our country, our families, our population. And in this case we’re not just defending Ukraine. We’re defending freedom, humanity and Western values. 
And there are already a whole bunch of stories of heroism. For example, in the Ukrainian Army, from 2014 until 2022, we had ten Heroes of Ukraine. The Hero of Ukraine is the highest medal….I don’t know how to describe it in English, you know? 

You have to do something so heroic. It’s not just destroying the enemy. It’s saving the lives of your friends and comrades. And in the last forty-two days, we’ve had seventeen Heroes of Ukraine. The numbers are absolutely incomparable…it’s something unexpected even for us Ukrainians. From the very beginning, we didn’t expect to be able to stop this Russian aggression. Even I, as a colonel, had some doubts that our Ukrainian army could stop the huge Russian armada.

But we’ve done it.

“Even Back Then, They Were Bullshitting Other People And Other Countries.”

A converstion with disinformation expert Michal Marek

Michal Marek - The InfoWarfare Project Founder

“It’s like kids in the classroom. Two guys are the coolest, the U.S. and China. And another one is trying to be cool like them. That is Putin: he is like a small kid with big ambitions but without resources to be like the others.”

Michal Marek is one of Europe’s foremost experts in Russia’s 21st century dark arts: misinformation and disinformation on the digital battlefield.  Marek is a PhD candidate in International and Political Studies at Poland’s prestigious Jagiellonian University and the founder of The InfoWarfare Project. He’s spent his career studying the ways Russia pushes its agenda through the modern shadows—from social media campaigns to false flag operations—to affect the shape of geopolitics.

Despite his expertise on the underbelly of our hyper-connected world, Marek is not the brooding, austere academic one might expect. Instead, he has the mannerisms of a jolly young professor, unafraid to salt a lecture with humor and sharp analogy.

When I spoke with Marek over FaceTime from my hotel room in the Carpathian foothills, he wore a red turtleneck and horn-rimmed spectacles. Like so many Polish folks I met, he apologized for his poor English and then proceeded to speak it with brilliant precision and color. 

Over the course of our discussion, Marek explained the intricate roots of the imperial Russian mindset, the historical continuity of Russian propaganda methods, and the key role of education in inoculating modern society from disinformation. 

His words have been edited and condensed for clarity.

I was in Euromaidan in 2013. In 2014, when Russia attacked Ukraine, I was studying at Jagiellonian University for my masters in Ukrainian studies. Russian aggression became one of the main topics in the Polish info sphere and I got interested. 

In 2016, I started researching the ways Russia tried to destabilize the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine by stimulating conflict between ethnic Greeks, ethnic Armenians and ethnic Russians. Russia used disinformation, propaganda and provocations to stir this conflict. This made me realize how important disinformation is to the Russian Federation’s method of hybrid warfare. 

To understand these methods, we must start from their strategic culture. You have to know that Russians have a completely different mentality than Americans and Europeans. And to understand their strategy, you have to understand their culture and political myths. Not only Soviet myths, but myths from Czarist Russia.

Ukraine is the most important country in Russian mythology. Without Ukraine, Russian history starts in Moscow in the 16th century. But with Ukraine, Russian history starts in the 10th century, with Kyivan Rus.
Kyivan Rus was not Russian. The Russians stole the name and history and changed it for themselves. In their mythology, you’ve got the Roman Empire. From there, the center of civilization moved to Byzantium. From Constantinople, it moved to Kyiv. And from Kyiv, it moved to Moscow. Without Kyiv, they lose all of this mythology. Without Ukraine, Russia is something like a false—an invalid—empire.
 Russia’s disinformation methods started in Byzantium. Even back then, they were bullshitting other people and other countries. The Byzantines were quite a weak country, who had to make everyone believe they were one of the strongest in the world.

 This was the same story as the Soviet Union. And now it’s the same in the Russian Federation. These countries were and are weak. They have nuclear power, but the Russian army is not strong. Putin and the generals know that the Russian army is not the army of their dreams. So because of that, they make policy using propaganda and disinformation. They make myths—very strong myths—that are used to consolidate the people around a strong president.
Like, for instance, their myth that the Russian army is immortal. That it is one of the most powerful armies in the world. But this is a very big problem because the Russian army can’t destroy the Ukrainian army.
So how to explain that? 

 Well, they say “We are changing strategy. Now, we will concentrate the attack in the east and liberate Donbas. This is the second phase of the war. Everything is great.”

If Russian people saw, for example, the bombardment of Mariupol or Kharkiv, in a pro-Russian Telegram…they would think it’s not Kharkiv but Donetsk. And that it’s been bombarded by Ukrainians, not Russians. If they saw destroyed tanks, they would think “OK, this is one or two Russian tanks, this is normal.” If they saw Russian dead bodies, they would say “OK, this is only war.”
And you know?

Now people support Putin more than before the war, because he gives them a feeling of strength. One of the biggest mistakes is that we in the West think about Russia from our perspective. From the perspective of the individual. 

In our culture, the biggest successes are in individual life. For example, if you asked a typical Ukrainian, Polish or American guy the question “What is the most important thing for you?” they would say “My family and my work.” 
But, if you asked a typical Russian guy, they would say “The most important thing is that the Soviet Union beat the Third Reich in the Second World War” or “Gagarin was in space.”

For a Russian guy, it’s important to belong to the strongest group. And because Putin gives them this imperial feeling, they support him.

 This is a very problematic thing, especially because they have made a filtered bubble in Russia. They have absolutely insulated their information space, which makes Russian society something like a zombie.

Russia achieved this by working across a lot of different platforms. They’ve got the most popular information and internet and TV resources. After that, they have alternative websites and radical websites and social media and Telegram. Telegram is very important in the Russian language space.
For example, Dmitri Medvedev recently published an article. In this article, he wrote a lot of propagandistic narratives about Poland. Since he is a very important authority, Russia’s most important media outlets talked about it. 

 Then, after the narrative became popular in the most important media, it trickled down to the less important media. Then Russia started using Telegram to distribute very short notes. These notes contained only the most important piece of propaganda, such as “Dmitri Medvedev said that Poland has always falsified history.” After that, Russian Telegram trolls pushed the message out: Poland is bad, Poland is the worst. 

 In that same moment, those messages come to Western countries through social media, through trolls and through fan pages that are controlled or supported by Russia.
In Poland, for instance, we have a lot of fan pages on Facebook used by Russia to spread propaganda. These are not pro-Russian groups, by the way. These are typical groups of conspiracies and mysteries. 

Before the war, these pages were concentrated on anti-vaccine propaganda. But since the war started on February 24th, all those groups that were anti-vaccine are now anti-Ukrainian. In one moment, the anti-vaccine messages stopped…and now it’s anti-Ukrainian, pro-Russian, anti-NATO sentiment.

Or, for another example, America and everyone else has had a problem with rising gasoline prices since the Russian invasion started. And Russian narratives and propaganda are starting to influence American people and convince them that this is not the fault of Russia…but the fault of the American government. The same with COVID-19. They said it is the fault of the American government and its bio-laboratories. That this is the fault of Trump. That this is the fault of Biden and Biden’s son. Russia is trying to destabilize the political situation in the United States this way.

Russia uses these complex methods, but also it uses primitive methods. 
For instance, in 2017 or 2018, Russia defaced a memorial near Kyiv. This memorial was for the soldiers of the Soviet Union. There is a separate memorial for the Polish soldiers and one for the Ukrainian soldiers. And on the Polish memorial, the Russians wrote “Fucking Polish! Slava Ukraini!” and all of that. On that same night, in that same place, they defaced the Ukrainian memorial and wrote “Fuck Ukraine!”

Similarly, in November of 2021, Russian provocateurs attacked a Polish monument in Krakow and wrote something like “This was an attack of Ukrainian nationalists.” They painted a Ukrainian flag, but the blue was down and the yellow was on top. It was the opposite. It was funny. Russia was trying to cause conflict between Polish and Ukrainian people but did such a bad job that no one believed it. It is completely primitive, but they work all the time with those tactics.

One of their biggest successes in disinformation and propaganda, however, was creating the migrant crisis on Polish-Belarusian border. And it was a very important success, because Russia and Belarus joined forces to not only create the crisis but start a disinformation campaign. They compared the border crisis to the holocaust and claimed Poland was responsible for killing migrants on the border. They created narratives about Poland as a racist and fascist country and this narrative became very popular in the West.
In Germany and in France, in the EU and NATO—the Russians destroyed Poland’s positive image. And some parts of the Polish media believed the Russian narratives about this very bad, migrant-hating Polish government. A lot of Polish journalists lack knowledge about Russian methods of disinformation.

Which means that in Poland and other Western countries, we must start talking to people about disinformation. The lack of campaigns informing people about propaganda and disinformation is a huge problem.

Right now, on Ukrainian TV there are many minutes of coverage each hour about the war…but one minutes or two minutes about the dangers of disinformation. This is very important because it fosters social resilience.
We have to start doing the same thing: we have to work with people in schools and with kids so our people can understand that Facebook does not give good information. We have to start talking about this, not as an academic position, but by using social media to educate people about disinformation. People on social media, YouTube, bloggers, influencers—they know nothing about Russian disinformation. This is work for NGOs and experts, but it’s also very important work for governments.

Because Russian propaganda will be with us up to our end. Or up to the end of Russia. We can’t stop it. We must learn to live in the space that has a lot of disinformation. We have to fact check. NGOs must spread knowledge about disinformation techniques. There should be campaigns and education programs in schools about functioning in the information space. Because disinformation was and will be. This is a global trend and we can only concentrate on education. Only education can make our societies stronger and more resilient in the face of this problem. Only that.