The outcome of Russia’s war on Ukraine is not yet in view and the shape of the battlefield is difficult to assess from afar, but on one crucial front Kyiv is winning, and winning big — the battle for the hearts and minds of the watching world. Once known as propaganda, messaging has always been one of the central tools of battle. From the Greeks to Winston Churchill, the projection of justice, victory, and the dissemination of positive information have been at times as important as actual territorial wins. In the current war, Moscow is using its once-formidable propaganda machine as if the world had stopped developing back in the middle of the 20th century. In contrast, Kiev is flooding the zone with images and memes.While the Russian military embeds no reporters with its troops, Ukrainian citizens arm themselves with phone cameras and social media apps to broadcast their battle to the world. Nothing displays this disparity better than the images of President Putin holding meetings at his cartoonishly elongated conference table — especially when contrasted with, say, a selfie of President Zelensky and his defense minister. The Kremlin photo is cold and stiff, enhancing Mr. Putin’s image as an old man with an isolated, detached personality. The Kiev image shows two young pals, smiling winningly. There are countless such Ukrainian images that flood Twitter and other social media sites from which many across the world get their information. At the United Nations today, the Ukrainian ambassador, Sergeiy Kyslytsya, read in Russian a thread of text messages from a dead soldier’s cellphone. Mr. Kyslytsya waited for delegates to adjust their translation earphones before reading the exchange in which the soldier tried to explain to his mother that he’s no longer in the safety of Russian-occupied Crimea but on the way to Kiev, where he’d soon be killed in battle. Social media is filled with images such as a Ukrainian tractor pulling a Russian tank and a video, shot from a car, showing a row of deserted tanks deserted by their Russian crews. Then there are images of Ukrainian men, women, babies, and pets cowering in subway stations during nights of bombardment.Who can forget the story of the expletive hurled at a Russian ship before the 13 Ukrainians who manned Snake Island were reportedly killed? That iconic display of heroism was disputed by Russia, which insisted that the Ukrainian crew members were taken as prisoners of war. Later reports seemed to verify that claim, but without a video to prove it, the news was not as widely distributed.Similarly, a video of an armored vehicle smashing a Ukrainian car on the streets of Kiev is now disputed by Moscow. The Russians contend their army possesses no such vehicles, and that they are widely used by Ukrainians. In the famously thick fog of war, truth is always difficult to verify, but Ukraine has shown much more agility and conviction in spreading information than Russia. True, Ukraine has a huge advantage in this arena: It’s on the correct, noble, and valiant side of the war. It is also more adept at communicating. Does it matter? It’s quite possible that despite initial setbacks, the Russian army will capture major cities and perhaps even take over Kiev and capture its leaders. If so, the information battle may well prove less crucial than other tools of war. Yet, that battle already has marked concrete results that could prove crucial. America and European countries are inspired by it and fully side with Ukraine. Would fence-sitting Germany turn around and start sending offensive arms to Kiev if its voters were uninspired by Mr. Zelensky’s defiant speeches, delivered in battle garb? Would neutral Sweden join Europe’s drive to arm Ukrainians? Speaking of neutrality, would Switzerland — which has etched that concept in its approach to the world for decades — freeze Russian accounts in its secretive banking system? Russian messaging is a derivative of Mr. Putin’s confused and self-contradictory speeches. It is mostly aimed at the domestic crowd, which has limited access to outside sources of news. Large demonstrations in St. Petersburg and elsewhere, however, show the limitations of even that effort.Ukrainians — from a famous rap artist to a beauty queen — have now taken arms to resist the Russian invader. Almost as importantly, they post selfies with their rifles at hand. Such strategic choices could well prove a secret to victory.This article has been updated to reflect the news that earlier reports of 13 Ukrainians being killed at Snake Island were likely false.
