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The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, an actor and comedian before entering politics, has drawn a huge following online, with a single broadcast on Twitter attracting nearly 20 million views.
Tama Leaver, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University, said posts from the president down had humanised the war for audiences abroad, giving a sense of immediacy and intimacy that traditional media could sometimes miss.
Why has the Ukrainian conflict hit differently online to others?
Professor Tama Leaver has suggested a host of reasons that the Ukrainian conflict has garnered much more Western attention online than other recent outbreaks of violence.
- Determined strategy from the Ukrainian government
- Better internet connections
- Substantial number of English-speakers
- Echoes of the Cold War
- Location
- Some racially tinged disregard for other conflicts
- Growth of video social media, especially TikTok
“It doesn’t hurt having the most unlikely but likeable president in history,” Leaver says.
“The guy doing the Ukrainian version of Paddington Bear’s voice isn’t the one you imagine on the front lines with a bulletproof vest, but he’s symbolic of a whole country.”
There is a strategic benefit to winning the online war.
Marcus Hellyer, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, says the imagery has helped spur Western voters to demand their leaders give military aid to Ukraine, as well as personally affecting European heads of state.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s videos have gone viral.Credit:Tom Compagnoni
“Western countries can see the sorts of munitions they’ve been providing, such as Javelin anti-tank missiles are working, having an effect on the ground,” Hellyer says.
“It’s easier to support someone fighting for themselves and doing well.”
Earlier this week Prime Minister Scott Morrison would provide $105 million in aid to Ukraine, including $70 million of defence support. While the government did not specify what weapons would be provided, Hellyer says Australia has a stock of Javelin missiles – the same kind that the US has supplied to Ukraine and have been captured blowing up Russian tanks.
The algorithm on TikTok promotes videos that people tend to watch. For now, that means footage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Credit:Tom Compagnoni
The European Union, which has never before given arms to a war zone, also promised €500 million ($764 million) in aid and arms for Ukraine.
Other videos are more directly instructive, Hellyer says, such as guides to making and using homemade weapons. He has not yet seem evidence of videos being used to inform battlefield tactics, but suspects phones have been tracked by intelligence services in the conflict.
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But there is a limit to power of video.
Russia has throttled access speeds to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in the country since shortly after the invasion, creating an increasingly sectioned-off internet.
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