“Romantic gestures come in many forms,” reads the opening of a video posted by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense on Twitter. Bouquets of flowers, chocolates and the Eiffel Tower appear on the screen to the sound of “Je T’Aime, Moi Non Plus”, Serge Gainsbourg’s famous song in which a couple reproduces a sexual relationship in detail — moans included.
The unsuspecting may have doubts about a possible hacker attack against the folder responsible for guaranteeing the defense of the country at war with Russia for almost eight months. Until the video announces what it came for.
“If you really want to win our hearts, nothing beats mobile artillery with 155mm self-propelled ammunition,” the piece continues, interspersing scenes from the Ukrainian War front and smiling photos of Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron together.
“‘Merci beacoup’, France! Please send us more of these”, ends the video, which shows the armaments produced by the French and sent to reinforce the Ukrainian arsenal.
The montage was published hours after Paris signaled it intended to send more weapons to Kiev last week. It is a way of putting pressure on the French government to fulfill the promise — Zelensky’s main request is for anti-aircraft systems, following the wave of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities, the most widespread since the beginning of the war.
The piece is one of many ironic posts in accounts by official bodies and Ukrainian authorities on social media that have multiplied since late July, when Kiev expanded the movements of its counteroffensive, although they were present to a greater or lesser extent from the beginning. of conflicts.
Such content was used, for example, to “celebrate” the explosion of the bridge linking mainland Russia to Crimea. This is the case of a video published by the head of the National Security and Defense Council, Oleksii Danilov, which shows the burning megastructure next to Marilyn Monroe singing “happy birthday, Mr President” — Vladimir Putin had turned 70 the day before.
Mikhailo Podoliak, the main adviser to Zelensky’s office, used a scene from “Harry Potter” showing Dolores Umbridge, one of the most hated villains by fans of the young wizard’s saga, to illustrate a commentary on Ukrainian children being brought up and raised in Russia.
Before that, in August, after the explosion of a Russian military base in Crimea, the same Ministry of Defense published a warning about the dangers of smoking, implying that the Russians themselves had set fire to the place by leaving lit cigarette butts behind. Note that in none of the posts the Ukrainians claim responsibility for the attacks.
Professor of international relations at the University of Oxford and expert in digital diplomacy, Corneliu Bjola says that at first he was surprised by the Ukrainian memes. After all, in a context like a war, with a lot of brutality and suffering, humor could easily backfire.
As he analyzed the posts, however, he understood that they represent a strategy to maintain Western countries’ support for Ukraine — without which Ukraine would inevitably be defeated. “And the best way to do that is not with discussions between states, but by talking directly to the foreign public, who can in turn exert pressure on their respective governments,” she says.
Memes fulfill a number of functions in this sense. One is to show the outside, initially skeptical of the potential of the Ukrainian resistance, that the people are not only capable of dealing with adversity, but also militarily skilled.
The same publications also serve to raise internal morale at the domestic level. And they help to undermine the Russian intimidation narrative by insinuating that Putin’s troops are not as strong or capable as they claim.
Bjola says there is yet another important reason for the adoption of memes in Ukrainian communication. Before the war, he says, there was a great lack of knowledge about Zelensky’s country, generally seen as another corrupt state of the former Soviet Union with unclear problems with Moscow.
The posts would thus represent a kind of visiting card from Ukraine to the West, seeking at the same time to reduce the distance between them and their allies and to oppose Putin’s rhetoric that the invaded nation’s citizens are nothing more than separate Russians. of the motherland. It’s no wonder that the montages have English subtitles and make so many references to American pop culture, says the professor.
“They say, ‘we are just like you,'” explains Bjola, adding that, if successful, the tactic can bring great advantages. This is because, when a State recognizes another as an equal, “defending it is equivalent to defending itself”.
The functions listed by the researcher for Ukrainian memes largely condition their nature. In addition to caricatures of Putin and his troops, other recurring publications include montages of battle scenes with romantic soundtracks and photographs of Ukrainian soldiers interacting with dogs and cats – there are even an exclusive Twitter profile for this.
Bjola also says that this strategy was not born now, but after the invasion of Crimea, in 2014, with the creation of a strategic digital communication unit by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was then that, along with tools like virtual sanctions and crowdfunding, “The Simpsons” gifs and memes began to appear in Kiev’s propaganda material.
The initiative was led by Dmitro Kuleba, current minister of the portfolio. And it included a special attention to Twitter, a timely tool for bringing together the political and journalistic elite in the West, according to the professor. The effort paid off and spread far beyond the upper layers of government, from mayors to soldiers at the front.
The sarcastic posts tend to wane when Ukraine has heavy losses or is the scene of atrocities like that in Butcha, a Kiev suburb where hundreds of bodies were found on the streets and in mass graves after the withdrawal of Russian troops. The jokes also dropped sharply in June and July, when Ukrainian forces suffered successive defeats.
The official channels of Russia, in turn, have bet on a more austere digital communication, echoing, for example, the threats of use of nuclear weapons made by Putin. “She wants to break Ukraine’s connection with Western countries. For that, she needs to intimidate, portray herself as very aggressive, willing to do whatever it takes to win”, analyzes Bjola.
It is a paradigm shift from the record of the Russian government, which used to use parodies against Western leaders and repel criticism of Moscow’s alleged interference in other countries.
In 2014, when NATO published satellite images showing Putin’s tanks invading Crimea, for example, Russian embassies tweeted images of toy vehicles and described them as the most convincing evidence the Western military alliance had on hand.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
