Ukraine sees success in information war

Outmatched in might, nation takes gains where it can.

When President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking to U.S. lawmakers Wednesday, aired a video documenting the human toll of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, the images were so graphic they prompted an apology from a cable news anchor for having failed to warn viewers.

The video, which showed corpses being dumped in mass graves and bandaged children staring out from hospital beds, brought home the toll of the conflict in a stark, visceral way, leveraging support from Congress and intensifying pressure on the Biden administration as Zelenskyy appeals for additional military aid in his country’s struggle.

The Ukrainian leader’s plea to Congress — in which he appeared unshaven and grave-faced, in his trademark military tee — is the latest example of how the onetime TV star has overseen an extraordinarily effective communications campaign that has proved crucial in marshaling global support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia.

By playing up Russian brutality and military stumbles, deftly using social media, and appealing to foreign leaders’ emotions while challenging their policies, Zelenskyy has steered an information offensive that has yielded greater Western arms donations and wider backing for unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia.

Sean Mcfate, author of “The New Rules of War” and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the Ukrainian communications strategy — or stratcom, in military parlance — highlighted a shift taking place in modern conflicts, from a focus on munitions dropped to one centered in large part on messaging, media and persuasion.

“Russia may be winning the shooting war,” he said. “But Ukraine is winning the information war. That is the key to getting allies’ support and sympathy.”

The effort also reveals how Ukraine now rivals — and, in the West, has far outpaced — Russia in a field in which Moscow has been seen as a global leader. Unlike in the past, when Russia used information and disinformation operations to sway global events including the 2016 U.S. presidential election, experts say Moscow’s effort is directed internally as President Vladimir Putin scrambles to shore up domestic support.

The standing ovation Zelenskyy received from American lawmakers on Wednesday — like those he has received elsewhere — caps the 44-year-old’s transformation from comic actor to wartime leader.

After his 2019 election, Zelenskyy — who rose to fame as a bumbling but straight-talking fictional president on a popular Ukrainian TV show — installed associates from his TV production company into the country’s top jobs. Policymakers from Ukraine’s allies warned privately that it was a bad idea, but the in-house media expertise appears to have paid off.

Long before the Russian invasion, Zelenskyy embraced a communications strategy unusual in its disregard for standard diplomatic parlance, often generating discomfort among Ukraine’s backers in the West, as he did when he repeatedly challenged the Biden administration’s policy of not sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was built to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany.

“He had the guts to defy Western leaders who were only giving him half a loaf and saying, ‘Look, given the threat I’m under, I should get a full loaf,’” said John Herbst, who served as ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006 and now heads the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

Now, those tactics have been elevated to a larger stage. In plain-spoken latenight speeches from his office, in sweatshirt-clad selfie videos filmed outside the presidential administration building in Kyiv, and in more formal videoconferences to leaders around the world, Zelenskyy has galvanized a strong global response to the invasion. He has 5.4 million Twitter followers.

He has tailored his appeals to different audiences, echoing the wartime words of Winston Churchill in a speech to the British Parliament; referencing Canadian cities in an address to lawmakers in Ottawa; and citing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Wednesday’s remarks to Congress.

“Zelenskyy has the circumstances where his unique abilities as a communicator can really flower,” Herbst said.

People who were in the room when Zelenskyy addressed a late night summit of European Union leaders last month, a day after Russia began its invasion, credited his powerful intervention as inspiring them to impose significantly stronger sanctions than were initially considered.

His declaration that Ukrainian mothers were watching their children die on behalf of European values left some leaders in tears, the officials said. After Zelenskyy’s remarks, the leaders approved teaming up with the United States to freeze the Kremlin’s foreign reserves, a sledgehammer to the Russian economy.

WALLY SKALIJ/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS Mourners gather Wednesday at the funeral of two Ukrainian soldiers killed by a Russian missile in Starychi, Ukraine. One expert said while Russia wins the shooting war, winning at information is key to Ukraine gaining allies’ support.

NEW YORK TIMES/AP POOL It was once thought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy putting his TV production associates in his cabinet was foolish. Now it is widely seen as a brilliant communications success.