NAFO (group)
"[2] NAFO has attracted direct criticism from a number of pro-Russia outlets and figures including RT and Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
[7] The meme was created in May 2022, when Twitter artist Kamil Dyszewski, under the handle @Kama_Kamilia,[8] started adding modified pictures of a Shiba Inu dog (the "Fella") to photographs from Ukraine.
[11] The Fellas make appearances in various edited still images and "TikTok-style videos of Ukrainian troops set to dance music soundtracks", and are "spliced into war footage to mock Russia's military and praise Ukraine's soldiers".
[12] In June, the group rose to mainstream prominence after an interaction on Twitter between Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov and a number of NAFO accounts with cartoon dogs as avatars.
[2] According to The Wall Street Journal, the group's pro-Ukrainian fundraising and merchandise sales are believed to total "over $1 million ... but no official tally is kept" so the claim cannot be independently verified.
"[2] The origin of the meme was a quote tweet in "dubious English"[11] by @200_zoka (with airdefense idiosyncratically combined into one word) reacting to photos of smoke billowing up from the distant airfield.
[N-I 3] German state-supervised broadcaster ZDF rejects the notion that NAFO is an operation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, stating that "the fact that 'Nafo' is financed by the CIA is just a self-deprecating joke among Twitterers.
[20][21] The summit's main livestreamed event was held at the Kablys night club in Vilnius, with a turnout of roughly 200 people in-person and thousands more online.
[22] At the summit, a number of fundraising activities were hosted, including pro-Ukraine merchandise sales and an auction for an artwork depicting Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov's personalized Fella.
[22] NAFO was described as a "Western civil society response to Russian campaigns" by Tobias Fella, a political scientist training Bundeswehr soldiers in dealing with social media.
"[4] American media studies professor Jaime Cohen argues that the NAFO movement "is an actual tactical event against a nation state".
"[24][25] American Lt. Col. Steve Speece of the Modern War Institute at West Point argues "Meme content shared in NAFO channels ... is almost exclusively English language and presumably not intended for Russian audiences ...
[24] According to the cyber warfare unit of the U.S. Army, the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade, "For an online community like NAFO, hostile mention from an official propaganda outlet of its target is evidence its ridicule is achieving the desired effect.
