Putin’s Top Propaganda Mistakes about Ukraine

Summary

Putin's invasion of Ukraine was predicated on a series of misconceptions about Ukrainian society, government, and attitudes towards Russia, which have been disproven by the resilience and unity of the Ukrainian people in the face of the ongoing conflict.

Abstract

The article outlines ten critical errors in Putin's propaganda that have led to significant miscalculations in the invasion of Ukraine. Despite initial expectations of a swift regime change, Ukraine has not only resisted but also reclaimed territory, demonstrating a strong national resolve. Putin's assumptions, such as the belief in widespread government corruption, the anticipated welcome of Russian forces, and the notion of Ukraine being culturally and historically inseparable from Russia, have been contradicted by the actual events of the war. The Ukrainian government's patriotism, the lack of public support for Russian intervention, the diversity and strength of Ukrainian society, and the country's distinct historical trajectory have all contributed to the failure of Putin's predictions. The article emphasizes that Ukraine's societal structure, education levels, and cultural identity are fundamentally different from Putin's portrayal, which has led to a protracted conflict with no clear resolution for Russia.

Opinions

Putin's belief in the ease of overthrowing the Ukrainian government due to perceived corruption was unfounded, as Ukrainian officials ultimately chose patriotism over financial ties to Russia.
The expectation that Ukrainians would welcome Russian forces as liberators was met with hostility and insurgency, indicating a strong sense of national identity and resistance to Russian influence.
The propaganda narrative that Ukraine was rife with Nazism was debunked by the election of a Jewish President and the minimal support for far-right parties in the country.
The historical claim that Ukraine is inherently Russian was refuted by the distinct linguistic, cultural, and political development of Ukraine over centuries, despite periods of Russification.
The 2014 conflict in Donbas did not weaken Ukrainian resolve but rather solidified the view of Russia as an enemy, awakening a reclamation of Ukraine's own history and identity.
Ukraine's societal makeup is diverse and pluralistic, not monolithically Russian or eager to rejoin Russia, with a range of ethnicities and cultures protected under Ukrainian law.
The notion that Ukraine's national identity was a recent construct by Stalin was dismissed

The Top 10 ways Putin doesn’t get Ukrainians

I have been watching and reading about the War in Ukraine and Putin’s justification for it believing he could change the regime in three days. Now it’s been over six hundred days, the Ukraine regime is still in place and the Ukrainians have been able to take back some of their territory leaving Russia with less than 15% of Ukrainian territory in its hands.

While Ukraine has not won the war yet, it has not capitulated to Putin either. Regardless of the number of bombs Russia lobs at Ukraine, their resolve as a nation holds.

So how did Putin get things so wrong?

What were the top propaganda mistakes Putin made about Ukraine, that led him into this quagmire with no good options to resolve his “special military operation”?

The Corruption of the Ukrainian Government: Putin thought the Ukrainian government and bureaucracy were bought in rubles by him. While there was corruption and bribery in the Ukrainian government, when it mattered, most Ukrainians proved to be patriots first and turned their cloaks on their Russian financial backers.

Ukrainians would welcome Mother Russia: Russia told its troops that Ukrainians would welcome them as heroes to save them from a corrupt nation. Instead, Russians were welcomed by a hostile populace that quickly turned to insurgents in the occupied areas.

Ukraine is full of Nazis: In 2019, Ukrainians went to the polls to elect a Jewish President and right-wing political parties only received 2% of the votes, not enough to seat one member in Ukraine’s Rada (Parliament). While the Azov battalion was originally formed and led by alt-right leaders, they have all been expunged from the battalion’s leadership.

Ukraine is actually Russia: Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine all claim their origin to the Kyiv-Rus empire as the empire encompassed territory from all three modern nations. Each of their three distinct languages originate from the old Slavonic language spoken in the empire like Italian, Spanish, and French languages originate from Ancient Rome. However, the capital, Kyiv, was and always will be within Ukrainian land. After the dissolution of Kyiv-Rus, all three nations had hundreds of years of nation-building before coming together in the Russian empire. Two hundred years of Russification can’t change that.

The 2014 War didn’t turn Ukraine against Russia: Ukrainians were horrified by the war Russia started with Ukraine in the Donbas using the regional leaders in Donetsk and Luhansk to conduct a proxy war. Secretly sending Russian troops and military equipment clandestinely to pretend they were separatist troops, took its toll on Ukraine. Many Ukrainians stopped seeing Russians as brothers but as the enemy to fear, waking up from a colonial trance. They are slowly reclaiming their history and legacy stolen by Russia.

Ukraine is a monolithic society: Ukraine is not full of Russians who went astray in 1991 and are waiting to come back to the fold. Ethnic Ukrainians have had divergent paths and influences with Lithuanians, Cossacks, Poles, and Austro-Hungarians. Ukrainians are made up of ethnic Ukrainians but also Russians, Jews, Crimean Tartars, Romanians, Moldovans, Greeks, as well as many other minorities. Ukraine is a much more pluralistic society than Putin realized with many divergent voices and customs protected by the country’s law.

Ukraine was formed by Stalin in the 1930s: Ukraine would not have its distinct language, culture, cuisine, and values if it had only been formed ninety years ago.

Ukraine’s society is structured like Russia’s: Russia has always been organized with a strong central command and control system starting from the Tsars, the U.S.S.R, and through the Russian Federation. Ukrainian society is decentralized with strong local community governance and identity. Ukrainians are self-reliant and create change from the bottom-up through local grassroots methods. It is witnessed every day in the galvanization of its citizens to volunteer locally for the war effort. Even if Putin had taken Kyiv, Ukraine would not have fallen because Ukrainians would have kept fighting everywhere.

Ukrainians are weak and not proud: Putin thought he could bomb Ukrainian civilians into submission. It didn’t work. Then Putin thought he could freeze Ukrainians into surrender by attacking the electrical grid, but that didn’t work. Ukrainians have proved they are not weak enough to be cowered. They are proud people who would rather fight down to the last man or woman than be a colony again.

Ukrainians are peasants: While Ukraine does have a strong affinity to its land, its fertile black soil, and its flourishing agricultural economy, Ukrainians are no longer peasants. Ukraine has a literacy rate of 100%¹ and 58% of its citizens have a university degree.² Ukrainian intellect and ingenuity have been on display for everyone to see with its battle tactics and use of drones.

Based on what we have witnessed from Ukrainians over the past 600 days of war, none of Putin’s propaganda claims have proven true.

I would argue that the only person still deluded by what Putin says about Ukraine is Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.