Authors

Ekaterina Mikhailova¹;  ¹ Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Germany

Discussion

The paper attempts to disentangle (in)securities expressed at the national and local level during the preparation, launch and functioning of pre-2022 jamming campaign in Eastern Ukraine. This campaign, referred to as the "war of TV transmitters", began shortly after the establishment of self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s republics (LPR and DPR) when TV transmitters in Luhansk and Donetsk started broadcasting LPR and DPR TV programmes as well as Russian TV on the frequencies that used to broadcast Ukrainian TV channels. Seeking to regain control over the electromagnetic waves within its entire territory, Ukraine has been blocking the LPR, DPR and Russian broadcasting and boosting its national TV signal by renovating destroyed TV transmitters and erecting new ones along the line separating Ukraine-controlled territories and Russia-backed LPR and DPR.

The paper will be guided with the following questions: (1)What were the key milestones of the studied jamming campaign? What security concerns have been presented as its driving force?(2)What was the local response to the jamming campaign on each side of the conflict? By looking at the official rhetoric produced by thematic agencies and attitudes expressed in media and social media by people residing in affected regions in Ukraine and Russia, I will reconstruct the historical canvas of pre- and post-jamming events and identify the main narratives triggered by jamming on each side of the conflict.