Ukraine
Ukraine: The Drone and Media Wars
And no, I don’t believe the video’s claim that it’s top secret
I recently wrote about the fact that the Russo-Ukrainian war will be remembered as the first major conflict in which drones have been extensively used by two ‘conventional’ national armies facing off.
Also, the widespread use of social media by both sides has been a quantum leap forward for modern warfare in a way far beyond what’s happened in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, for example.
United24 YouTube
Now the Ukraine government has set up a United24 YouTube channel. Here’s the text of the announcement:
[Forwarded from FEDOROV] Today, we are launching our first show on UNITED24’s YouTube channel — the Fight for Freedom, to tell the world how our military’s professionalism, cleverness, and heroism help Ukraine resist a vastly outnumbering army of Russian invaders and how foreign technologies paired with the tenacity of our people help in the fight for freedom of the country.
The pilot episode of Fight for Freedom reveals the role of the military drones in this war. Check this link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmpLGaxiynM) to watch and support our fundraising for The Army of Drones.
Yes, it’s propaganda and yes, some of it probably stretches the truth.
In case you don’t know, United24 is a Ukrainian government website designed to rope in support from around the world:
UNITED24 was launched by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the main venue for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine. Funds will be transferred to the official accounts of the National Bank of Ukraine and allocated by assigned ministries to cover the most pressing needs
The drone war has another angle
Ukraine came up with the idea of an IT Army. It’s the cyberwar equivalent of opensource software development. Anyone can be involved — just sign up online for the Ukraine IT Army and play a part in DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks on specific Russian websites. They provide a list recommended tools to download and protocols to use as well as a list of targets, many of which are drone companies or stores selling drones but also at one time included Russian state websites and news channels.
This is what The Guardian said in March 2022:
Ukraine’s cyber-response to the Russian invasion has been bolstered by hackers organising on the Telegram messaging app under the IT Army of Ukraine banner. More than 300,000 people have signed up to the group, including members from outside Ukraine.
The Guardian points out that joining such a group could be technically illegal depending on your country of residence.
However, there is a downside, as The Guardian pointed out:
“Whilst I totally understand the sentiment behind the actions of many in this IT army, two wrongs do not make a right. Not only might it be illegal but it runs the risk of playing into Putin’s hands by enabling him to talk about ‘attacks from the west’,” said Alan Woodward, a professor of cybersecurity at Surrey University.[author bolding]
And so it could provide Russia with ammunition in the media war. When I checked (23 July 2022) I could not spot any Russian government websites or news channels, so maybe that expert advice has been heeded by Ukraine.
An exceptional media war
There is little doubt that Ukraine’s media war has been exceptional, run by Ukraine’s digital ministry under Mykhailo Fedorov, the 31-year-old founder of a digital marketing startup. You saw his name at the top of the announcement.
Volodymyr Zelensky put Fedorov in charge of the newly-created Ministry for Digital Transformation in August 2019, after Fedorov helped him win the presidential election with a very slick digital campaign. Now he has a lot more to deal with, and most media professionals would say that he’s doing an exceptional job and that Ukraine is winning the media war worldwide.
Ukraine has also become one of the world’s leading states in terms of digital government, arguably second only to Estonia.
Besides the ‘traditional’ news feeds social media plays a huge part. Although I do use Facebook (grudgingly) and Twitter I do not follow the Ukraine feeds on those channels. Telegram is my source of choice.
Numerous Telegram channels have been created to put the news out. When I first started following the Ukrainenowenglish channel several months ago, there were about 115,000 subscribers. That has grown and now stands at 163,000. Not a whole lot you might think, but many of those are journalists and news channels. The channel now has over 10,000 photographs and almost 2,000 videos.
But we’re outside Russia and Russia uses Telegram too. Ivan on the Moscow omnibus is not seeing what we are — Ivan is seeing what Putin permits.
There’s distortion on both sides for sure, so I thought I’d check out what the Russian offering was on Telegram. The sheer number of apparent Kremlin channels was confusing and I gave up trying to determine which was ‘official’ channel.
Who’s the bigger liar?
I know where I stand.
And so the drone war is now embedded in the media war.
If you want to donate a drone to Ukraine you can. It’s called ‘dronation’ — another slick concept from the Fedorov’s media team.
You can dronate (money or a drone) at:
Falling short
The dronation campaign falls short in my view. They should be doing what animal sponsors do and allow you to name your drone — and then provide some basic historical tracking data. ‘Enola Gay’. Now there’s a name to conjure with.
I suggest that only half-jokingly. Imagine going to the bar and telling your pals ‘Last week my Gigi spotted three Russian tanks and called in the artillery. Score three for Ukraine’. Drinks all round.
War is changing, for sure.
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…media wars
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