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Ministry of Defense, Trg kralja Petra Krešimira IV br. 1, 10000 Zagreb (josipa.vukovic@ gmail.com).

Croatian Defense Academy “Dr. Franjo Tuđman”, Ilica 256b, 10000 Zagreb (dario. matika1@gmail.com).

Croatian Defense Academy “Dr. Franjo Tuđman”, Ilica 256b, 10000 Zagreb (sbaric957@ gmail.com).

Fontana (2010: according to Kalb, 2007) states that the most important Arab television channels Al-Arabya and Al Jazeera portrayed Israel as an attacker. The BBC showed both as aggressors, although blaming Israel more. US media were divided: Fox News was on the side of Israel, CNN was trying to be neutral, and ABC, CBS and NBC channels were more critical of Israel than of Hezbollah. The New York Times and Washington Post represented Israel as the attacker twice as often as Hezbollah on their front pages.

Little green men (Rus. зелёные человечки, Ukr. зелені чоловічки) is a colloquialism in Ukraine for masked soldiers wearing green uniforms without any insignia or markings, but who are equipped with Russian weapons and military equipment.

On February 27, 2014, in the Crimea, “little green men” first occupied the building of the Parliament to prevent the functioning of local authorities. The first building in Donetsk which was occupied in April 2014 was the building of regional state administration. The police and local security forces failed to defend the building, because they were not issued clear orders for its defence, because of their low morale, poor leadership and inadequate equipment.

Meanwhile, the media, under the influence of the attacker, spread disinformation and discredited the attacked country trying to disorient international politics by the level of falsehood.

An intensive media campaign successfully influenced the confusion of decision-makers, spreading fear and dissatisfaction with the central government and thereby weakening the potential and effective perception of the local Ukrainian army and police.

In the referendum in the Crimea on March 16, 2014, 97% of the population of Crimea voted for annexation to Russia, and 3% for the autonomous status of Crimea as part of Ukraine. On Apr 4, 2014, the activists who occupied the regional administration building in Donetsk proclaimed the People’s Republic of Donetsk in the Donetsk area in Ukraine. On May 14, 2014, the People’s Republic of Lugano in the Lugano area in the east of Ukraine was self-proclaimed, too. Both self-proclaimed entities have no legal democratic legitimacy.

Russian President Putin commanded the maintenance of emergency military exercises across western and central Russia in the period from February 26 to March 3, 2014. At the same time, the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said: “These exercises are not in any way related to the events in Ukraine”. One part of the sudden military exercises, which was testing the readiness of the Russian military, took place on Russia’s borders, too, including the border with Ukraine. In these large military exercises, a total of 150,000 troops, 90 military aircraft, over 120 helicopters, 880 tanks and 1,200 pieces of military equipment were engaged. (Tensions on Crimea, Feb 26, 2014).