At the international conference “Defending Democracy: Horizons of Freedom”, Col. Goran Vasilevski, delivered a powerful testimony drawn from direct military experience in regional wars and his transition to civilian life. Speaking on artificial intelligence, cyber warfare, and disinformation, Vasilevski warned that modern threats to democracy are increasingly invisible, operating through digital space rather than conventional battlefields.

He emphasized the strategic importance of cyber security, media literacy, and NATO-EU unity, underlining that democracy can only be defended through informed citizens, resilient institutions, and coordinated civil-military responses:

As of today, I can say that I am in a slightly more comfortable position here than many of you. Why? Because until recently—about a year and a half ago—I wore a uniform. I had the misfortune of participating directly in two regional wars.

Now I am a civilian. In fact, even when I was serving, after duty hours—after 4 p.m.—I returned home to my family, who were civilians. My son never joined the army. My wife, my children, my entire family—except my father—are civilians.

So when you ask me about artificial intelligence and why I feel more comfortable speaking about it, I will tell you this: unlike kinetic warfare, the threat in cyber and AI-driven warfare is not visible. And it is precisely this invisibility that creates uncertainty—both for us as individuals and for the wider international community.

We ask ourselves: can AI bring positive outcomes in the future, or will it be misused for deeply negative purposes?

As Lena mentioned, and as Marian also pointed out, in the world of AI you cannot easily identify the threat. You do not know whether you are facing one individual or hundreds of bots. You cannot tell who is creating fake news, generating false videos, or manipulating narratives in the media space.

On the real battlefield, however, the situation is different. As soldiers, our primary objective is simple: to survive, to stay alive after the battle. Russia did not invade Ukraine with artificial intelligence alone—they sent people. And for nearly four years now, both Russia and Ukraine have been learning how to use AI in warfare. Ukraine, of course, has done so with the support of the international community.

My personal belief—as someone who will remain a soldier until my last day—is that this is a vast and still largely unexplored domain. We are only beginning to understand how these tools can be used.

Just recently in Estonia, a NATO member state bordering the Russian Federation, a major NATO cyber exercise was held. Twenty-nine NATO member states, along with partner countries, participated. The focus was on exploring cyber space, particularly scenarios such as sudden power blackouts, public infrastructure shutdowns, and loss of communication across civilian and military systems.

Loss of communication is a nightmare for any army. Without communication between units, you cannot expect to win a battle—let alone a war. This is exactly what adversaries of democracy, NATO, and the European Union are trying to achieve: to create chaos, to spread fake visions, to push narratives that Europe is collapsing or that NATO is falling apart. These narratives are simply not true.

In my view, NATO has never been stronger. And the European Union has finally opened its eyes to the reality that without unity, European democracy and values will be under serious threat in the future.

The use of fake news and information manipulation did not start yesterday. We remember the cases of Snowden and Julian Assange. They tried to reveal the truth—to show what was happening behind the scenes. And we all know how those stories ended. Unfortunately, not at the hands of authoritarian regimes, but democratic countries.

Snowden, if I am not mistaken, is now in Russia. Assange spent years confined in embassies. This raises a critical question: should we prosecute people who expose the truth, or should we protect them as a way of strengthening democracy and democratic values? Or do we instead prioritize protecting governments and political elites by keeping secrets at all costs?

With artificial intelligence, nobody knows where the limits are. Nobody knows when a clever individual—or a hostile actor—might penetrate protected systems, access classified information, and blackmail institutions or entire countries. We have already experienced this here in North Macedonia, when cyberattacks shut down several institutions, including ministries. We also witnessed cyberattacks targeting the State Election Commission just before elections.

So we must seriously consider how to fight these threats.

Cyber space today is as important as land, sea, and airspace. The key question is how to integrate this domain into military doctrine, how to train forces to operate effectively in cyber space, and how to unite military and civilian capacities. This is why NATO cyber exercises increasingly involve civilian structures—to produce better analysis and provide stronger support for political decision-makers.

North Macedonia has never been a proxy country—not in the past, and not today. North Macedonia is a NATO member state and a candidate for EU membership. And ultimately, the government is not Macedonia—the people are Macedonia. The vast majority of citizens are committed to continuing the path toward the European Union.

We have achieved one strategic goal by joining NATO. The next goal is EU membership—whether sooner or later. This depends on all of us and on the atmosphere we create in society to accelerate this process.

One of the key factors in this effort is media literacy. People must educate themselves—individually and collectively—to raise the level of media and digital literacy. In a world shaped by cyber threats and artificial intelligence, media illiteracy is a serious personal risk. It makes individuals easy targets for manipulation, turning them into tools for agendas they may not even understand.

That is why strengthening media and digital literacy is not optional—it is essential for the defense of democracy.

This article and refined transcript were prepared by the author with AI-assisted language refinement and editorial support. The content remains fully faithful to the original video address. All responsibility for interpretation and publication rests with the author.

Watch the full video from the conference: