Ukraine army wins Twitter battle

Earlier this week, a small group of Ukrainians with expertise in video editing, communications and advertising decided to thank France for the weapons it had sent the country’s military.

“It’s France, so we knew we had to do something romantic,” said Anna, who helps create content for the team that manages the Ukraine defence ministry’s Twitter account and who asked that her real name not be used. “But it also had to remind them that they can do more.”

The resulting clip was posted on the ministry’s Twitter feed on Wednesday. Set to Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s recording of classic French ballad Je T’aime Moi Non Plus (I Love You, Me Neither), the video features images of chocolates and flowers that segue into footage of French-donated Caesar 155mm howitzer artillery firing on Ukraine’s battlefields. “Thank you France,” the text reads. “Send us more.”

The clip racked up 1.5mn views and 31,000 retweets within 24 hours.

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As the battle against Russia enters its eighth month following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February, Ukraine’s military appears to have conquered Twitter with an effective mix of posts that blend humour and tragedy. The aim is to “win hearts and minds” across the globe and keep international allies onside, said Anna.

The defence ministry’s feeds intersperse grim reminders of the toll the war has taken on Ukraine with slickly produced and often irreverent messages — creating a narrative that Ukrainians are stoic in war, wry in difficult circumstances and magnanimous on their route to a victory made possible by western weapons.

The posts have spread across the Twitter feeds of their target audience — international decision makers, influential journalists and ordinary pro-Ukrainian westerners — who seem clearly hooked. Even as energy costs soar across Europe, such accounts help maintain popular backing for the Ukrainian war effort, say observers.

“Videos like that help set a narrative that influences what’s possible in the policy world,” said a western diplomat. “Accounts like these are a key part of that and they are influential.”

The defence ministry’s account has 1.5 million followers but its influence is far wider. Followed by top officials around the world, including at the US state and defence departments and the CIA, its output — and that of other non-official pro-Ukraine sites — helps shore up support, while “the humour and creativity help stave off [the west’s] war fatigue”, said another western diplomat.

Behind the output is a diverse group of volunteers, including graphic designers, video editors and copywriters, who feed their creative efforts to a strategic communications company staffed by veterans of Ukraine’s political scene. That team operates the Twitter accounts of the country’s defence ministry and the defence minister Oleksii Reznikov.

They have become the voice of the country’s armed forces, drowning out their enemy’s staid messaging with trolling, irreverent jokes and an understanding of the culture of the countries they are targeting.

When using a map of Japan to show the length of Ukraine’s frontline, the team included the Kuril Islands, the subject of a territorial dispute between Tokyo and Moscow, The comments exploded with Japanese users, surprised and grateful that Ukrainians were aware of the issue.

Some contributors work in the US, fine-tuning content for one of their core targets — the American taxpayer. Some of the material pays homage to the 2000 hit film Gladiator — known to be particularly popular among American men of the generation that now holds influence.

In another, a cartoon Himars — the guided rocket system donated to Ukraine by the US — floats on a rubber boat, its missiles pointed at Vladimir Putin’s signature Crimean infrastructure project, the Kerch Bridge — foreshadowing last weekend’s explosion that partly destroyed the structure.

Those involved in the Twitter content asked not to be identified out of concern for their physical safety and the possibility of a cyber attack from Russia. “It’s tempting to take credit,” said Anna. “But maybe after the war.”

The creatives work in separate silos, using an encrypted messaging app to stay in touch with the dozen or so people who approve and post the final messages.

At headquarters the goal is clear — to keep audiences engaged with a simple narrative. “No one believed that Ukraine would win this war, but we were not surprised that we were tigers,” said Taras, also an assumed name, who has the final say on what is tweeted. “We were not surprised that we were tigers — so we need to show western audiences what we know about ourselves.”

The simplest messages often work best, said Taras. He singled out a photo of four soldiers and a scowling cat in a Humvee, which his team found on Telegram and tweeted. “Five of us,” read the message, which struck a chord with the public and was retweeted 110,000 times.

“Ukraine gives the world a beautiful story, full of tragedy and pain, but also beauty and humour and compassion,” said Anna. “We are brave on the battlefield but we also save cats and dogs, have weddings on the frontline — we are fighting for these values.”

The team’s most effective weapon has turned out to be the merciless trolling of their foe. After Ukrainian forces seized ammunition and armour from the Russian army during its chaotic retreat from the Kharkiv region in late summer, Taras and his colleagues tweeted: “We do not accept gifts from murderers, torturers, looters or rapists ... we will return everything, down to the last shell.”

Throughout the summer, as unexplained explosions rocked Russian bases in Crimea, their posts neither took credit for the attacks nor denied them. Instead they mocked Russian soldiers for setting their own infrastructure on fire by smoking carelessly, using the Bananarama song Cruel Summer as a soundtrack.

“Trolling is the best way,” said Anna. “If you ridicule your enemy, then there is less fear. Russia has been trying to convince the whole world that they are the mightiest army. Now we see that they are weak, badly equipped, demoralised — and trolling helps us show that the king has no clothes.”

- Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022