Crisis Communication Strategy in Case of a Nuclear Incident in Ukraine

The present article examines the main theoretical paradigms and applied strategies of crisis communication in the case of a nuclear incident, with a view to describing the specific situation in Ukraine in the context of the war against the Russian Federation. International experts have discriminated between communication in the pre-crisis phase, the crisis development per se as well as the post-incident phase, when the consequences of the nuclear incident are liquidated. It’s worth mentioning that Ukraine has adopted a series of pre-emptive measures, based on a number of factors that favor an efficient communication strategy. Following the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Ukraine preserved civil security classes in its education system. On the other hand, due to the war, communication interactions between the authorities and citizens have become more operative. At the same time, a number of obstacles might affect the efficiency of crisis communication, such as war fatigue, propaganda, social disappointment, waning trust in the authorities, Russia’s destruction of energy and information infrastructure in Ukraine etc.