A lesser known page of the Russo-Ukrainian war is the story of how a bunch of Ukrainian digital pros launched a *massive* info campaign in Feb/March 2022 to penetrate Russian propaganda and reach ordinary Russians.
It’s time you should know this story (and learn from it).
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First, some background.
As Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border on Feb 24, Russian official position was to deny everything.
Russian TV said there was no war (hence “special military operation”) or that Ukraine was bombing itself.
An iron curtain was on.
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As Ukrainians were evacuating their cities and taking up arms, they had this naive idea that Russian society could and would stop this war — it just needed to know what was actually happening, to know that their sons were needlessly killing and getting killed in Ukraine.
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Also, the reaction from the West was very disappointing in the first weeks.
Top European politicians refused to act against Russia and preferred to “strongly condemn” the war in their speeches.
That’s why for Ukrainians, the first intuitive step was to talk to the Russians.
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That’s how this whole anti-propaganda campaign started: because Ukrainians thought Russians can flood the streets and topple the regime at least for the sake of their soldiers’ lives.
So what did Ukrainians do exactly?
They did what they’re so good at: they self-organized.
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Thousands of tech specialists, designers, marketers and copywriters from top Ukrainian companies organized across their professional communities and started working together to break Russian propaganda and tell ordinary Russians the truth about the war.
I was among them.
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We did so much in these wild first weeks.
We launched multiple info websites (before Russian state blocked them).
We created banner ads on Russian social media that told the truth about the war.
We bought ads online and targeted them at Russians on all possible platforms.
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We were not some amateurs.
Somehow, under bombs, folks managed to meet every couple of days to share insights, see which messages and facts about the war worked better (we looked at CTRs, views, comments, average time before getting blocked) and brainstorm our further steps.
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I have no idea how much personal savings and crowdfunded money was poured into these online campaigns, but it’s safe to say these were thousands, maybe tens if thousands of dollars.
We didn’t care about the money — we really thought this could help us stop the invasion.
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This movement was so huge that thousands more ordinary Ukrainians tuned in: telling about the war in reviews on Russian Google maps, helping to put down Russian state websites, and more.
It truly was a big part of the all-Ukrainian resistance.
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And boy did we reach ordinary Russians.
Our ads and websites were seen by tens of millions of Russians.
Here’s a screenshot of a Russians complaining that their social media feed is filled with the photos of dead Russian soldiers (yep, one of our attention-grabbers)
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So, after breaking the wall of Russian propaganda and reaching tens of millions of ordinary Russians with truth, what did we hear back?
Nothing. Silence.
After a few impotent protests in big cities, Russians gave us a collective shrug and decided to do nothing.
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This was the moment of disillusionment for many Ukrainians — the moment when we realized that ordinary Russians were not some hostages of the regime, not bystanders of the war.
They were responsible for the war, for allowing it.
Ordinary Russians were also the enemy now.
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This was the last time Ukrainians tried to talk to the ordinary Russians.
We all decided to boycott everything and everyone Russian after that.
Instead, we focused on helping our Armed Forces and talking to our partners in the West — our imperfect but true allies.
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As I was learning more about Russian colonialism (I’m eternally grateful to @maksymeristavi for that), it became crystal clear to me why ordinary Russians were not moved by our anti-propaganda campaign.
Invasion and genocide are the basis of Russian statehood.
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Russians don’t want the war to affect them personally and financially, but they support the war — it is war that makes Russia great in their poisoned by imperialism minds.
The fact that Russia is able to wage a war of this scale for 2 years is thanks to ordinary Russians.
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When months later Navalny said that his org needed western money to “help ordinary Russians know the truth about the war,” I laughed.
Russians are perfectly aware of what their army is doing in Ukraine — and they’re loving it.
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I just wish the democratic world came to these realizations as well.
If only our partners stopped allowing Russia to abuse international institutions, gave Ukraine the weapons it’s been asking for, and took sanctions against Russia seriously, the war would be over.
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Instead, western institutions choose to platform Russian propagandists and genocide apologists.
Instead, our allies falsely believe that appeasing Russia one more time can bring peace — while it certainly will only bring a next world war closer.
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There are no comfortable “shortcuts” to ending this war.
The only path to real peace is through Ukraine’s victory and Russia’s defeat.
Arm Ukraine now. Double down on sanctions.
Everything else — like talking to ordinary Russians — is a dangerous distraction.
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