NATO Struggles to Defeat Villains from the Country of Karti, Portrayed by Citizens of Ukraine 0 10

NATO conducted exercises aimed at testing the readiness of Alliance member countries to counter disinformation campaigns that Ukraine faces daily since the full-scale invasion of Russia in 2022.

An attack from a fictional enemy state called Karti was simulated in Bydgoszcz, Poland, where the only NATO facility is staffed and managed jointly by representatives of the Alliance and Ukraine.

The three-day simulation consisted of online campaigns aimed at sowing discord and disorienting the local population in the context of a serious crisis.

In one scenario, the fictional country of Peranza found itself in a blackout due to a cyberattack on its power grid by an authoritarian neighbor that has long claimed its territory.

In addition to the power outage, participants also tested two other scenarios: how authorities would communicate in the event of a major flood and if hackers seized the banking system.

Ukrainian representatives were assigned the role of the villains from Karti, who flooded social media with AI-generated messages explaining each crisis as a result of government incompetence and corruption, while simultaneously offering to send aid to residents in distress.

The "Peranza" team responded with calls for national unity and warnings about looting and other forms of disorder.

According to the jury, which included scholars and disinformation specialists, the "Karti" team lost by a narrow margin in two scenarios.

Last year, NATO opened the Joint Analysis, Training, and Education Center (JATEC) to help allies learn from Ukraine's battlefield experience and improve the Alliance's readiness for future Russian aggression. A third of the 60 JATEC staff are seconded from Kyiv, including personnel from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense, and intelligence agencies.