NSDC Releases 'Anti-Occupation' Glossary

The dictionary contains guidance on how to correctly refer to Russian aggression, occupation and militants.

The NSDC Secretariat has developed a glossary that government and local authorities are recommended to use to counter Russian narratives in the information space. The document has been published on the NSDC website.

As the NSDC reported, for the purpose of destructive information influence and manipulation of public opinion, Russian special services are infiltrating names, terms and phrases into the Ukrainian and global information space, with which they try to legitimize pseudo-state entities in eastern Ukraine and the attempted annexation of Crimea, and to promote Russian propaganda strategies. 

It is noted that, in this regard, use of the said glossary will make it possible to counter such information wars.

The glossary is recommended for use by government and local self-government bodies, Ukraine's diplomatic missions, mass media and public sector organizations.

The list of terms and statements gives fake versions and their correct equivalents (for some, two options are suggested).

The dictionary contains five sections:

1. general terminology;
2. the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol;
3. ATO/JFO in the ORDLO;
4. terminology related to propaganda and historical memory policy;
5. terminology on foreign countries.

For example, it is specified that the correct phrasing is "in" Ukraine, not "on"; it is noted that the Revolution of Dignity or Euromaidan is by no means a "coup d'état".

It is also specified that the correct term is not "annexation of Crimea" but "temporary occupation" of the Ukrainian peninsula, or "attempted annexation" of this territory by Russia.

The Russian military invasion of eastern Ukraine should be called the "Russo-Ukrainian war", not the other way around. It also states that representatives of occupation authorities should be referred to with their status in quotation marks.

In the section on terminology related to propaganda and historical memory policy, it is stated that the fight against German fascism should correctly be called the Second World War, and never the "Great Patriotic War".

The section also contains information on Russian propaganda techniques: in an attempt to expand the geography of the conflict, Russia presents regions of Ukraine as separate territories, disregarding their historical names (Slobozhanshchyna, Black Sea Region) and the official names of the oblasts (Kharkiv, Mykolaiv). 

In the section on terminology related to foreign countries, it is specified that the correct term is Belarus, not Byelorussia, the Baltic states, not the Baltics, and so on. In total, the glossary currently contains 64 terms and phrases.

The NSDC said that the following took part in creating the glossary: the Center for Countering Disinformation, the Office of the President, the Representation of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Office of the Prosecutor General, the SBU, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Defense Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense and the State Border Guard Service.