Ukraine responds to Russian propaganda with its own narratives and is dominating the information war

Starting with the myth of the “special operation in Donbas”, Russian propaganda is blatantly countered by the reality on the ground, making it relatively easy to debunk and largely ineffective outside Russian information space, which is very strictly regulated. Ukraine is responding to this propaganda by launching its own narratives, aimed at encouraging the population and demoralizing the enemy. So far, Kyiv and Ukrainians – since journalists and regular citizens are also pulling their weight – seem to be winning the information war.

Russia’s armies are demoralized

In repeated speeches, Ukraine’s president said the Russian army is demoralized, doesn’t want to fight, and that no invader will be spared. In fact, Volodymyr Zelensky isn’t addressing just the Russian troops, who actually have little access to Ukraine’s sources of information (some don’t even know where they were sent), but rather to Ukrainians themselves. The Ukrainian authorities, the Security Service first and foremost, have been trying for the last three weeks to prove the Russian army doesn’t want to fight, that it is in disarray, and that victory is at hand for Ukraine.

The Great Patriotic War turned against Russia. The link to Nazi Germany

Two weeks ago, Veridica wrote about certain media outlets in Kyiv that started to refer to Ukraine’s resistance to the invasion as the Great Patriotic War. Meanwhile, the idea was also picked up by both Kyiv officials as well as by academia.

The Soviet meaning of the “Great Patriotic War” (the Eastern front in World War II, from June 1941 until May 1945) is replaced in the Ukrainian collective mindset with a different meaning – Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s acts of aggression.

Ukraine’s president pointed out that Kyiv is fighting a war in defense of the fatherland, which will be over once the enemy is destroyed. “The occupiers will receive nothing but retaliation from Ukrainians. A swift retaliation to understand we will never give in”, Zelensky said.

Zelensky’s speeches include elements of Soviet narratives, designed to enliven old sentiments for the former Soviet state and to create a link with the heroic deeds of Ukraine’s forefathers. On several occasions, the Ukrainian president highlighted the fact that there have been other patriotic wars in the past (referring to the one where Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union), and the occupiers never stood a chance. Ukraine’s president tries to create an association between Hitler and Stalin, with a view to mobilizing the elites that were educated in the spirit of Soviet propaganda and who were inspired by narratives linked to World War Two.

Nazis and “rassists”, Hitler and “Putler”

The social media in Ukraine is now promoting this new term to describe the political regime in Russia, namely the “rassist power” (a mix of ‘Russian’ and ‘racist’), used to compare the Nazi regime to the Russian (rassist) one, but also the war crimes of Hitler to those of “Putler” (the term has been used in Ukrainian media after the annexation of Crimea in 2014). All these narratives and parallels are designed to mobilize the masses, to boost resistance not just in the center and the west, but also in the Russian-speaking east and south. Judging by the anti-Russian protests staged in Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, the message seems to have done the trick. Worth noting is that Ukrainian resistance was not generated by these messages of the authorities and the media, but merely reinforced.

Ukraine – twice the challenge compared to Chechnya

Since the outbreak of the war, Ukraine has been distributing information (which independent sources have not yet been able to verify) regarding Russia’s significant losses in the war. Ukrainian estimates far exceeded those presented by the United States, as well as a death toll presented by Russia with significant delay. The media claimed Russia sustained the biggest losses of human lives and technology since the end of the Second World War. In addition to providing regular updates for these figures, Kyiv started to use the reports made public by the Defense Ministry as genuine elements of psychological warfare, with a view to deterring states such as Belarus from entering the conflict on Russia’s side. According to a Defense Ministry report published on March 15, Russia sustained losses that exceed those reported in both wars in Chechnya.

On the one hand, Kyiv is spreading images of houses, maternity hospitals, schools and other objectives destroyed by the Russian army, while on the other hand it is trying to sow fear in the ranks of the enemy.

Psychological warfare at political, civil and virtual levels

The social media in Ukraine is filled with viral messages promoted by Ukrainian journalists, who warned mothers of Russian military to forbid their sons from invading Ukraine, or else they would be considered aggressors, occupiers and invaders and would thus be shown no mercy. It’s interesting to note that the anti-Russian psychological war did not involve just the authorities, but the civilian population as well. A video has turned viral on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, depicting a woman who was trying to put sunflower seeds in the pockets of a Russian soldier, telling him he would be killed anyway by the Ukrainian army, and so at least sunflowers would grow from the place where he will meet his inevitable end. These civilian initiatives, which can very well reach Russian soldiers, might have much deeper effects in terms of achieving the goals of psychological warfare.

Ukraine’s information campaign - finer than Russian propaganda

Kyiv is employing various means to defend against information and psychological warfare in a conflict where it is undoubtedly the victim of Russia’s aggression. Whereas Russian propaganda seems to be rather unsophisticated and less trusted in the West, let alone Ukraine, Kyiv’s narratives, on the other hand, have a finer touch and include traditional elements of psychological warfare: appealing to myths ingrained in the collective mindset by comparing the fight against Hitler’s Nazis to the fight against “Putler’s” “rassists”, disseminating information aimed at spreading fear among the Russian military, etc. Irrespective of the situation on the battlefield, Kyiv’s narratives seem to dominate the public sphere and be more persuasive, which will greatly complicate Russia’s efforts to keep under its control any Ukrainian territories occupied by military force.