’44 cruise missiles shot down before their first cup of coffee’

A Ukrainian soldier fires an American Javelin anti-tank missile at a Russian tank. Seconds later, the tank is fully hit and an explosion can be seen. A number of Russian soldiers are killed. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense writes on Twitter with the video: ‘One last kiss for the Russian tank driver.’

In the same light-hearted tone, the ministry reacts after the impact of Russian rockets and kamikazedrones in Kyiv, after which millions are without water: ‘So, it’s Halloween.’ To add, “Maybe it’s time to send a Ouija board to the Russian Defense Ministry,” referring to the US game of contacting ghosts. ‘Then they can keep in touch with their more than 70,000 soldiers in Ukraine.’ According to Kyiv, so many Russian soldiers had died in the invasion at the time.

And in a video of a Ukrainian soldier racing his combat vehicle through a terrain towards the Russian army, AC/DC’s monster hit is Highway to Hell hard to hear. ‘No traffic lights, no speed limit’, is the message of the soldier going into battle. “Nobody’s going to make me slow down.”

The tweets, which would be excluded from Western militaries, are in stark contrast to the horrors of war. Estimates of the Russian death toll range from over 15 thousand to about 77 thousand. Kyiv acknowledged that some 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed by August. According to the UN, 6,100 civilians have been killed so far.

Propaganda War

The Ukrainians’ Twitter strategy fits the first major war in which social media is so important. Whereas the Gulf Wars in Iraq were mainly TV wars, the battlefield has now shifted to the Internet. Moscow opts for a traditional approach, with statements and videos about the umpteenth Ukrainian losses. Kyiv, on the other hand, has opted for a striking, and controversial, strategy in the propaganda war: the use of black humor and sarcasm.

On Twitter, the Ministry of Defense alternates messages about mass graves with messages and videos full of jokes. The underlying message: we are still standing after eight months of war, and the Russians can’t get us down. This approach also has a goal for its own population: keep your spirits up, because there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“We keep our heads up, despite the price we have paid, because freedom is priceless,” the ministry summarized the Ukrainian strategy on Monday. The tweet was accompanied by the daily list of major losses allegedly suffered by the Russian army since March.

join the fight

The short messages, in English and often with videos, have been viewed millions of times. They should also help keep the West on the Ukrainian side. Movies of Western weapons are shown extensively, again with a joke, to give the people of the US and Europe the feeling that they are fighting the Russians on a daily basis.

Even ministers are not indifferent. “Look who’s here!” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted on Monday in a jovial tone, as if he were presenting a newly arrived guest at a party to the other partygoers. The reason was the arrival on the battlefield, after months of waiting, of the American high-tech missile system Nasams. Reznikov posted a photo of a Nasams firing a missile. This weapon should help bring down the Russian missiles and kamikazedrones.

The ministry’s well-coordinated tweets are the work of young internet volunteers who have come to the aid of the military. They have now given the department 1.6 million followers on Twitter. One of the most popular videos has been viewed more than two million times. “The main goal is to appeal to the international audience and show that Ukraine is really capable of winning,” coordinator Olena recently told the BBC. ‘Because nobody wants to invest in losers.’

Demoralize

Humor also helps Ukrainians endure the horrors of war, Sofia Maksymiv, communications director of the media company Internews Ukraine, argued in an op-ed in July. “A revolution, a corruption case, bad politicians, natural disasters: every crisis is a reason for the Ukrainians to make a new series of jokes,” Maksymiv said. Jokes unite people in difficult times around something positive. Humor helps to reduce tension.’

‘Information, in whatever form, is an important weapon in a war,’ says Lieutenant General Retd Hans van Griensven, former head of Operations of the Royal Netherlands Army and former teacher at the Higher Military School. According to him, the Ukrainian tweets are also intended to ridicule the Russians. “But we would never do it this way,” he says.

Van Griensven: ‘They send out the message: the Russians can do whatever they want, but no one can stop us. Ukraine is thus trying to demoralize the enemy and deprive them of the will to continue fighting. But I take much of what both sides claim, including about the death toll, with a grain of salt. Certainly what the Russians say. In war the truth is always the first casualty.’