Social media in the Russo-Ukrainian War

[1] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has personally used a "unique, media-friendly dynamic style" in how he communicates with the public on social media during the full-scale invasion.

"[3][4] Throughout the war, Zelensky has continually posted low-production-value "selfie videos" on social media giving updates and speeches as an everyman, furthering his perceived authenticity and boosting Ukrainian morale.

[4][5] In July 2022, Ukraine launched United24 Media (separate from the United24 fundraising platform), a cross-platform, mostly English-language outlet "to promote Ukrainian culture and debunk Russian propaganda".

[9][10] According to a report by NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, during the early stages of the war, pro-Russian social media accounts "systemically cultivated fear, anxiety, and hate" among ethnically Russian and other minority populations of Ukraine by distributing and manipulating images of supposed atrocities by Ukrainian forces.

[11] For example, during the 2014 Odesa clashes in the wider 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, there was a viral post originally posted to Facebook - now widely considered to be a hoax - by a supposed "Igor Rosovskiy" claiming to have witnessed Ukrainian nationalists beating up other residents of the city and burning them alive, and making antisemitic threats towards Rosovskiy, an alleged emergency physician, when he tried to help the victims.

[14] It was eventually announced in July 2023 that the IRA would be dissolved, as part of larger reprisals against Prigozhin in the wake of his largely unsuccessful Wagner Group rebellion.

[16][17] Since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, Ukraine has repeatedly urged social media corporations to do more work in countering Russian disinformation.

Aric Toler, a journalist for the open-source intelligence investigation organization Bellingcat, told The Atlantic that "Almost every bit of information about the war on Twitter, [Instagram, Facebook, and others] is downstream of Telegram.