His unique, media-friendly style has amassed tens of millions of followers – a stark contrast to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has not posted on Instagram or Twitter since early 2022, and has fewer than two million followers on both platforms combined. One of the most prolific posters is Zelensky himself, whose official accounts post a constant stream of updates on multiple platforms. almost unmediated access to wartime events in real time,” says Dr Olga Boichak, lecturer in digital cultures at the University of Sydney. “A lot of what we see is happening through the eyes and the cameras of people who are in Ukraine currently narrating the things that they’re seeing. Posts multiplied claiming sightings of the ghost of Kyiv – a mythical Ukrainian fighter pilot credited with shooting down Russian planes over the capital.įrom videos of Ukrainian soldiers dancing on the front lines to everyday citizens giving deadpan tours of bomb shelters, “the world’s first TikTok war” has produced a constant stream of up-to-date coverage, direct from the front Living my best life 🥰🥰🥰 Thanks Russia! #ukraine #stopwar #russiastop ♬ Che La Luna - Louis Prima with Sam Butera & The Witnesses So did a video of a Ukrainian woman confronting an armed Russian soldier with sunflower seeds which, she said, could grow from his body after it perished on Ukrainian soil. The president, and former actor, was not the only Ukrainian figure to become the stuff of social-media legend in the opening days of war.Ī recording of a Black Sea soldier refusing to evacuate with the rallying cry “Russian warship, go fuck yourself' went viral.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – widely believed to be a target for imminent Russian assassination attempts – posted a selfie-style video filmed on the nighttime streets of Kyiv, proving that he had not fled the city. Within a day of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, the war in Ukraine had already produced one of its most-viral online moments.

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