The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-02)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

russia invades ukraine

BY DREW HARWELL

AND RACHEL LERMAN

Ukrainians and their support-
ers have used social media to
bruise, belittle and humiliate the
Russians, seeking to boost citi-
zens’ spirits and sap invaders’
morale during the most Internet-
accessible war in history.
A flood of real-time videos
across Facebook, Telegram, Tik-
Tok and Twitter has blunted
Kremlin propaganda and rallied
the world to Ukraine’s side as it
fights to defend its democracy
from a military behemoth.
It has also potentially saved
lives: Ukrainians have raced to
disseminate defensive strategies,
plot escape routes and document
the brutality of a raging clash.
Some expect that the phone foot-
age recorded in recent days could
play a critical role in war-crime
investigations after the combat
ends.
Russia has long been fabled as
the Internet’s most wily mischief-
maker, and the nation’s propa-
ganda machine has for years used
social and state-backed media to
deceive and disempower its en-
emies.
But Ukraine has in many ways
begun to beat Russia at its own
game, using constant, colorful
communication to foment a digi-
tal resistance and expose Russian
aggression on a global stage.
The tactics reveal how social
media has opened a new dimen-
sion of modern war, showing how
the Internet has become not only
a territory to fight over but a tool
for real-world conquest.
It has also helped Ukrainians
feel they can contribute to the
fight. Solomiia Shalaiska, a Kyiv-
based graphic designer, said she
felt helpless until she started
posting pro-Ukraine rally images
on an Instagram page she previ-
ously used for art and design.
One image — a David-and-Go-
liath-style map comparing the
size of both countries titled “Real-
ize the Scale of Ukrainian Hero-
ism” — has been “liked” more
than 100,000 times. Shalaiska
said she has joined the nation’s
nascent “IT army” of volunteer
hackers and hell-raisers, who
have worked to counter Russian
psychological operations by over-
whelming their websites and
flooding their intelligence offi-
cers with spam. (Shalaiska said
she has helped mostly by spread-
ing information and reporting
bots.)
“It’s very important to
[strengthen] the national spirit in
Ukraine, that’s why people are
doing memes and encouraging
images,” she said in an Instagram
message. People “should have
sources where they can find not
only Russian propaganda.”
The videos helped mobilize
anti war sentiment in the earliest
hours of the invasion, when a
woman was recorded admonish-
ing Russian soldiers to carry
seeds “so at least sunflowers will
grow here when you die.” In
another Facebook photo, a funer-
al wreath with Russian President
Vladimir Putin’s name on it was
captioned: “In Ukraine, the Rus-
sian army is greeted with flow-
ers.”
In the days since, videos have
helped transform local stories of
bravery into viral legends — and
exposed a war Russia has fought
to keep concealed. Ukrainians
have posted videos of themselves
thwarting tanks, guarding villag-
es, making molotov cocktails and
using them to turn Russian vehi-

cles into fireballs.

As Russia’s blitz has smashed

against a defiant resistance, some

Ukrainian fighters have tactically

trolled the enemy. In one video, a

camouflaged soldier talks into

the camera at his Russian oppo-

nents while screwing a silencer

onto a rifle. “Dudes, you are

f---ed,” he says with a smirk. “We

have tanks. We’ve got everything.

... Why don’t you f---ing surren-

der while you still have the

chance?”

Ukrainians have also used so-

cial media to spur on fellow

civilian defenders. Kira Rudik, a

member of Parliament, posted a

photo of herself barefoot and

holding a Kalashnikov rifle to

Instagram and Twitter, saying,

“Our #women will protect our soil

the same way as our #men.” The

Ukrainian rock star Andriy Khly-

vnyuk and a former Miss

Ukraine, Anastasiia Lenna, also

posted photos of themselves with

guns in hand.

The posts have highlighted

Russian tactical and logistical

errors, puncturing the nation’s

carefully crafted image of mili-

tary supremacy with videos of

grungy vehicles and an inexperi-

enced fighting force.

In one video, a Ukrainian man

ridicules Russian soldiers strand-

ed after their tank ran out of fuel.

In another, a tractor driver ap-

pears to tow a Russian armored

personnel carrier down the road.

Other posts have become po-

tent tools for strategy and intimi-

dation, helping Ukrainians share

videos and intelligence about the

code signs of Russian saboteurs,

the charred husks of Russian

military vehicles and the looted

bodies of dead enemy troops.

Ukrainians have also shared

online tactical guides on how to

dodge sniper fire, block roadways

and make molotov cocktails,

sometimes alongside memes say-

ing the Russians will find them

“very delicious.”

When John Spencer, head of

urban warfare studies at the U.S.

Military Academy’s Modern War

Institute, on Saturday tweeted a

guide for how “civilian resistors”

could strike fear in the hearts of

attacking Russians, Ukrainian

users translated it almost im-

mediately, sharing it across Tele-

gram and making digital fliers.

Spencer, who said the tweet

has been viewed more than

10 million times, said he had been

inspired by photos of Ukrainian

grandmothers volunteering to

take up arms.

“This is kind of the new way of

warfare,” he said. “There’s no

more going away to war. We’re all

with Ukraine right now.”

The videos have captured the

daily absurdities and turmoil of a

country stormed by force, with

Ukrainians sharing videos of

themselves singing the national

anthem and chanting in protest

outside an outpost in the Rus-

sian-occupied city of Berdyansk.

A day earlier, a man was recorded

removing an explosive mine by

hand while puffing a cigarette.

But they have also helped ex-

pose the urgency and inhumanity

of an urban slaughter. Early Mon-

day, minutes after cluster bombs

plunged into a neighborhood in

Ukraine’s second-biggest city,

Kharkiv, people nearby used so-

cial media to document the grisly

aftermath.

Ukraine’s underdog defense is

nevertheless stared down a stark

reality: A fierce onslaught of

troops and tanks, regrouping af-

ter early losses, continued to

charge toward the capital. The

glory of the scrappy resistance,

less than a week into the invasion,

could turn at any moment, and no

amount of online victory will

change that fact.

But the information they’ve

surfaced could help define how

the world remembers the con-

flict. During a U.N. meeting Mon-

day, Ukrainian Ambassador

Sergiy Kyslytsya read from what

he said was a screenshot of a slain

Russian soldier’s phone: “We are

bombing all of the cities together,

even targeting civilians. We were

told that they would welcome us.”

Peter W. Singer, a security ex-

pert and author of the book

“LikeWar,” said social media has

proved to be an effective tool in

helping sway public perceptions.

Ordinary Ukrainians, he said,

have used it to show how similar

their lives are to those of people

watching them around the world.

And their national leaders have

used it to broadcast themselves

among the people and in the

fight.

“You can’t disentangle the in-

formation side of the war from

the physical battlefield side or

from the geopolitical diplomacy

side” anymore, he said. “They all

matter.”

Ukrainian citizens’ social me-

dia prowess has been reflected by

their government, which on Fri-

day tweeted a photo of its tank-

destroying missile launchers

with a flexing-bicep emoji and a

note: “Welcome to hell.”

Ukraine’s road management

agency has also urged citizens on

Facebook to dismantle road signs

and build barricades of burning

tires to disorient the Russians.

One post’s photo showed a road

sign altered to say, “Go f--- your-

selves.”

Ukrainians “will resist on ev-

ery street, every road,” one post

Saturday said. “Let them be

afraid to even look in the direc-

tion of our cities!” (Some road

signs now read, “Good luck.”)

In Kharkiv, the governor used

Telegram to coach residents to

“stay at home and hide during the

complete destruction of the Rus-

sian enemy in the city.” A local

Telegram channel urged its

400,000 subscribers to “carefully

film” and share video of passing

Russian troops so Ukrainian

fighters could hunt them down.

Other local Ukrainian leaders

used social media to announce

their surrender: Gennady Matse-

gora, the pro-Russian mayor of

Kupyansk, said in a video mes-

sage on the city council’s Face-

book page that he had voluntarily

acceded to a takeover after the

Russian military advanced.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has

used the Internet to foment dis-

sent back in Russia, posting pho-

tos and videos of killed or cap-

tured Russian soldiers on a web-

site and Telegram account and

directing their family members to

call on Putin to end his “illegal

and despicable order,” as a Ukrai-

nian official explained on You-

Tube. The sister of one injured

sniper-unit commander told the

Guardian she was shocked to

learn he was even at war.

“We have captured around 200

Russian soldiers, some around 19

years old. Not trained at all. Badly

equipped,” Ukrainian Maj. Gen.

Borys Kremenetsky told report-

ers Saturday. “We allow them to

call their parents. Parents com-

pletely surprised.”

Ukrainian President Volod-

ymyr Zelensky, a former TV actor,

has posted videos nearly every

day to his 1.1 million-subscriber

Telegram channel, allowing him

to quickly undermine the kinds of

false-flag operations and phony

rumors that Russia has often

weaponized against its oppo-

nents.

After Russian media suggested

that he had fled the country,

Zelensky shared a video of him-

self and his top officials together

in central Kyiv: “We’re all here.

Our soldiers are here. Our citi-

zens are here. ... And it will stay

that way.” In another selfie video

posted Saturday, he swatted

down reports that he had called

for a surrender, saying: “We won’t

lay down our arms. We will de-

fend our state.”

Ukraine’s defense minister,

Oleksii Reznikov, has shown simi-

lar pluck through daily Facebook

posts, calling on viewers to share

images of Russia’s assault (“You

are our weapon”), posting selfies

with Zelensky (“Bullying Ukraini-

ans is useless”) and offering am-

nesty and cash to invaders who

surrender (and saying that “there

will be no mercy” for those who

don’t).

The Kremlin, in a likely at-

tempt to block Russians from the

reality of a vicious war, has re-

stricted access to Facebook and

Twitter, prohibited journalists

from citing anyone other than

official government sources and

banned the use of accurate de-

scriptive words, such as “inva-

sion” and “war.”

Russia’s state-backed propa-

gandists have since the invasion

told citizens only that the country

is conducting a small “special

military operation” in eastern

Ukraine. On Friday, Putin urged

citizens of the country he at-

tacked to overthrow their govern-

ment’s “gang of drug addicts and

neo-Nazis,” which he blamed for

provoking the conflict.

Russia has benefited from its

own form of social media intimi-

dation: The Chechnyan leader

Ramzan Kadyrov, a Putin backer

long accused of human rights

abuses, shared a video Sunday of

an armed convoy with the

285,000 followers of his TikTok

account.

But Ukraine’s transparency

has helped fuel an international

protest movement, even among

Russians. The Russian tennis

player Andrey Rublev wrote “No

War Please” on a camera lens at a

championship tournament in

Dubai. And Danila Kozlovsky, a

Russian film star, posted an Ins-

tagram photo telling Putin, “Only

you can stop this terrible disas-

ter.”

Experts outside Ukraine have

taken notice. “For all the fears

over the last nearly 10 years about

the Russian hybrid/information

warfare capabilities and troll

armies, they have completely lost

the information war over this

invasion of Ukraine,” tweeted

Dmitri Alperovitch, a cybersecu-

rity researcher and chairman of

the Silverado Policy Accelerator, a

cybersecurity think tank.

The raw candor and emotion of

Ukraine’s resistance are already

paying off. In a video call from

Kyiv late Thursday with Euro-

pean Union leaders, Zelensky

pleaded for their help and said it

may be the last time they would

see him alive. Some, moved to

tears, told The Washington Post

they had responded by pushing

forward aggressive measures de-

signed to punish the Russian

regime.

U.S. lawmakers hope it is mak-

ing an impact. Ukrainians’ re-

cording of the war, Sen. Mitt

Romney (R-Utah) said Sunday on

CNN, should drive home to Putin

that he has “badly miscalculated

how hard the people of Ukraine

would fight and the nature of the

world’s response.”

There is a risk in overstepping

the truth in pursuit of a mythical-

ly good tale. After Zelensky said

13 guards on Snake Island, an

outpost in the Black Sea, had

“died heroically” after radioing a

passing Russian warship to “go

f--- yourself,” the viral story was

heralded as a rallying cry for the

history books.

By Saturday, Ukraine’s State

Border Guard Service had an-

nounced, via Facebook post, that

the guards may still be alive and

imprisoned by Russian forces.

The mythos, nevertheless, en-

dures: The message, the Kyiv Post

tweeted, has been seen in lights

over a Ukrainian highway.

Ukrainians deftly wield new weapon of war: Social media

SALWAN GEORGES/THE WASHINGTON POST

Hundreds of people shelter in a subway station as explosions are heard in downtown Kharkiv on Thursday, the first day of the Russian

invasion of Ukraine. Citizens have turned to social media to foment a digital resistance and expose Russian aggression on a global stage.

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