The current situation is an opportunity to establish more effective and clearer communication.

What does the war in Ukraine mean for the economy and, especially, the communications industry?

This is a new price shock for the entire European economy, and it is certainly bringing major problems to logistics chains. There are already extensive supply disruptions, project postponements, and the like. This has a strong impact on entire business cycles. For the communications industry, the situation brings new uncertainty, but also the expectation and opportunity to establish more effective and clearer communication. This will include both the concerns of the general public and the direct consequences to individual industries. European governments will need to be much more active in addressing the wider social and economic consequences. In addition to action, they most communicate more proactively

Communications is used for propaganda, with social networks a sort of weaponry. What would you say about that under sung aspect of the “military?”

Running parallel to the ground war with weapons, there is also an intense information war, wrestling over “truth.” In contrast to what happened in past wars, thanks to social networks and new communication channels, like Telegram, things can go viral. This means that, before unverified information can be stopped or corrected, it may reach huge audiences and, of course, influence perception and action. In this information war, both sides are very aggressive. On the Ukraine side, the communication of third-party actors, like the hacker group Anonymous, also helps. It not only carries out cyber-attacks, but also uses them for information channels and communication.

How would you rate Ukrainian President Zelensky as a communicator?

So far, he has communicated brilliantly. Both with the domestic, Ukrainian public and with the outside world. This is not surprising, given his previous acting career and experience in media projects.