Deriding Russia is nothing new. Following the 2014 invasion of Crimea, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs built its digital messaging capacity in a strategic communications unit helmed by Dmytro Kuleba, with advice from the United Kingdom and the United States. Gifs and memes from the television show The Simpsons began to make appearances in digital propaganda. Modern Ukraine’s sense of humor is probably defined by our election in 2019 of Volodymyr Zelensky. His political-satire show and his Servant of the People sitcom were all-time television favorites. Of course, his election wasn’t a joke: Zelensky has proved a serious, capable president. Perhaps naive at first, he is now a modern wartime leader whom many Western countries admire. The plots to steal the weaponry and equipment were disrupted by Ukraine’s intelligence services and the items were ultimately recovered, according to the report, titled “DoD’s Accountability of Equipment Provided to Ukraine.” CNN obtained the report via a Freedom of Information Act request. Military.com first reported the news. Vincent Miller of Kent university in the UK, author of "Understanding Digital Culture", sees memes as a kind of conversation that can enable political debate to flourish.

We've been reporting this week on extreme weather in Ukraine - and it appears to be slowing down Russia's offensive operations. British military intelligence suggests Russia's air force has "likely started" using the RBK-500 500kg cluster munition bomb more frequently. By rapidly disseminating visual information with the added gaze of carefully constructed narratives, parties engaging in conflict, be it government, insurgent groups, terrorists or even common people can shape public opinion. Alhabash’s research indicates that people who share memes often aren’t thinking too deeply about what to post or share, and are “driven to make content based on what we think other people want to see on social media.” This can be a very knee-jerk experience, which doesn’t really lend itself to reflective war memes. The Ukrainian sense of humor originated from all the troubles that preceded our people for centuries,” Nazar said. The choice, he explained, was to give up and cry, or fight and laugh at the enemy. “We chose the latter!”Pizda (пизда): Cunt. Another core Slavic insult, although it has ancient Indo-European roots, if that helps. Ms Hrabovetska said memes and jokes were helping keep Ukrainians' morale high as authorities call for civilians to be part of the resistance. Just a month into the war, defence ministry wits posted the “Ukraine Oscars 2022”. This entailed several video clips, with such entries as Ukrainian farmers towing Russian military vehicles (“Best Supporting Actress for performance in The Taming of the Shrew”) and of Javelin missiles (“Best Actress” – the Javelin for the powerful performance in Burning Orcs.”) In another poke, to celebrate Ukraine’s 31st Independence Day on August 24, authorities lined the usual parade route in Kyiv with destroyed Russian military vehicles. LVIV, Ukraine — Some morsels of news are so grim and absurd that they sound like they were conceived in the warped imagination of bored satirists. Like the headline from Belarus a few weeks ago, reporting that 10th graders there were being taught how to aim rifles — using shovels.

Everything that was built with hard work by great architects is now being destroyed by cynical inhumans," Kiper said. Another particularly barbed tweet sported a Captcha mosaic of the burned-out planes with instructions to “Prove that you’re not a robot.” Two days of storms and snow in the south have left the ground sodden and unsuitable for military manoeuvres.As the Russian-Ukrainian conflict intensified, ‘The IT Army of Ukraine’ tweeted " Go to Google Maps. Go to Russia. Find a restaurant or business and write a review. When you write the review explain what is happening in Ukraine.” The enemy has not made progress around the city of Kupyansk, where Russia has amassed thousands of troops in recent days, Syniehubov claimed. "Our defenders are holding their positions," he said. Days after we spoke, Lipko joined the Territorial Defense Forces, the military reserves of Ukrainian armed forces tasked with guarding Kyiv. He hasn’t participated in the livestream show since March 13, but Dierskaia says he plans to return soon. “He probably would have to get on a very high tree to get some signal though,” she laughs. When God created Eastern Europe, he carved from the earth three hulking nations: a dull gray valley called Germany, an endless white tundra called Russia, and, between the two, a bursting field of yellow flowers called Ukraine.