The Ukranian social media propaganda operation is just incredible, and they should keep at it because I think it's been a big part of the massive popular support in the West causing rapid government and NGO response to the invasion.
Conversely they've been pretty effective at stopping information about their own disposition of forces being posted to social media, or at least it's not being retweeted anywhere I've seen.
It's all fun and games until Putin totally rages and dials it up to 11 without even a "no fly zone" being offered by the rest of the world. They have almost the military power of the US and look at the total decimation we did to Iraq.
I mean they are already bombing civilian areas so thousands are dying, just not being reported to keep moral up.
Putin will threaten maybe nukes in response but there has to be a no-fly zone over Ukraine or they are going to be destroyed by end of March.
Putin doesn't have to occupy Ukraine, he just has to destroy it, that's way easier. It will take at least a decade to rebuild if not multiple.
> Conversely they've been pretty effective at stopping information about their own disposition of forces being posted to social media, or at least it's not being retweeted anywhere I've seen.
I'm a bit twisted about this. In school, as a German, we were told that the Nazis only reported their wins, not their losses, and how this was such a terrible thing to do (I'm not saying Ukrainians are like Nazis of course.)
Any negative new related to ukraine is either shot down, assumed to be russian propaganda, not talked about. There has been widespread racism faced by blacks and indians. If you goto reddit any news related to it are downvoted as russian propaganda, uncivilized people not following orders etc. Even HN did not pick it up.
Firstly, there are zero tanks on the videos. Secondly, "snatched" is a very bold claim. There is a sizable number of videos of discarded Russian vehicles, but if you watch closely there is no blood and zero dead bodies. It looks like the Russian army simply discards vehicles with technical issues to keep forces mobile (this is why you see the vehicles towed, not moving by themselves). And lastly, in the second half of the second video the towed anti-air system is used mostly by the Ukrainian army (the Russian army uses more modern systems), so it looks like the Ukrainian army simply transports an immobile vehicle using an expropriated civilian tractor.
Various Ukrainian people and organizations declared bounties for killed Russians and captured hardware. I suppose the bounties aren't going to be taxed too :)
The Ukranian government seems to be very media-savvy, but for me this is noise compared to signal (important government declarations about the conflict, not about income tax on seized equipment), I feel like saying "My god man, can't you be a little serious, there's a fucking war going on!".
It's a great little piece of propaganda. It conveys that ordinary citizens have been capturing abandoned Russian vehicles, and tacitly encourages them to continue to do this. It gets Westerners sharing it because of the black humor of having a tax policy on captured enemy vehicles.
(And there seem to have been a lot of them; those interested can follow along on https://twitter.com/UAWeapons who post identifying captions in English. As always, take with a pinch of salt.)
Morale is very important in a war, especially if you're the side with the technological disadvantage. I feel like a lot of the Ukrainian gov communications tries to keep up the morale.
It also shows that the Government is still able to work, also an important signal to the country.
[+] [-] pjc50|4 years ago|reply
Conversely they've been pretty effective at stopping information about their own disposition of forces being posted to social media, or at least it's not being retweeted anywhere I've seen.
[+] [-] yossarian1408|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmlp|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ck2|4 years ago|reply
I mean they are already bombing civilian areas so thousands are dying, just not being reported to keep moral up.
Putin will threaten maybe nukes in response but there has to be a no-fly zone over Ukraine or they are going to be destroyed by end of March.
Putin doesn't have to occupy Ukraine, he just has to destroy it, that's way easier. It will take at least a decade to rebuild if not multiple.
[+] [-] qazpot|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sva_|4 years ago|reply
I'm a bit twisted about this. In school, as a German, we were told that the Nazis only reported their wins, not their losses, and how this was such a terrible thing to do (I'm not saying Ukrainians are like Nazis of course.)
[+] [-] dubblo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eqvinox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mo3|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tyropita|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hef19898|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thro1|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fuoqi|4 years ago|reply
Truth is the first casualty in war, indeed.
[+] [-] brabel|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thro1|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] trhway|4 years ago|reply
Various Ukrainian people and organizations declared bounties for killed Russians and captured hardware. I suppose the bounties aren't going to be taxed too :)
[+] [-] PedroBatista|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unfocussed_mike|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spacemanmatt|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] netsharc|4 years ago|reply
The Ukranian government seems to be very media-savvy, but for me this is noise compared to signal (important government declarations about the conflict, not about income tax on seized equipment), I feel like saying "My god man, can't you be a little serious, there's a fucking war going on!".
[+] [-] pjc50|4 years ago|reply
(And there seem to have been a lot of them; those interested can follow along on https://twitter.com/UAWeapons who post identifying captions in English. As always, take with a pinch of salt.)
[+] [-] wasmitnetzen|4 years ago|reply
It also shows that the Government is still able to work, also an important signal to the country.
[+] [-] CapricornNoble|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MaysonL|4 years ago|reply