A war within the war. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army on February 24, fighting has spread throughout the country and the Kiev regime, with the support of Western forces, has gradually been able to return to an unfavorable situation. Parallel to this deadly conflict, the Ukrainian and Russian leaders, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin, are locked in an image war that, for the moment, is largely tilted in favor of the Kiev strongman.
Ubiquitous on social media, Volodymyr Zelensky has chosen to weaponize it in his own right. With his daily speeches, the former actor was able to mobilize and galvanize his population, but also warn Western public opinion by effectively assuming the codes of these platforms. To date, he is followed by nearly 16.8 million people on Instagram and nearly 7 million on Twitter.
“Today we are in a connected war. You have the reality on the ground, the perception that people have, and between the two a virtual world. This virtual world takes ascendancy, it is also important to win success on the ground than to show them in an image, to exploit them through the good networks with the good techniques of the media”, indicates, with BFMTV, the military historian Cédric Mas.
worn out russian communication
This Monday, in an attempt to regain the upper hand in this image battle, Vladimir Putin went in person to the Kerch Strait bridge that marks the border with Crimea, a territory annexed by Russia since 2014. A symbolic visit since the building had been attacked. by a violent explosion and badly damaged in early October. In addition, it was the first official visit of the Russian president to the region since the beginning of the conflict.
It’s just that the images don’t particularly single out Vladimir Putin. Wrapped in a large down jacket, he is filmed from behind at the wheel of a Mercedes car and observes, accompanied by several apparatchiks, that the bridge has not yet been completely rebuilt. A sense of stagedness prevails even as the Kremlin strongman speaks for a few minutes with the workers present on the scene.
“You have a very marked communication of the 20th century with men who square off in front of an autocrat,” Patrick Sauce, BFMTV international politics columnist, informs our antenna.
This sense of showmanship and hackneyed communication was felt over and over again. At the end of November, the Russian president received the mothers of Russian soldiers killed on the Ukrainian front, a meeting for which the women present had been carefully selected.
ukrainian counter attack
In recent weeks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had promised a visit by Vladimir Putin to the Donbass region. However, this Tuesday, the Russian president was preceded by his Ukrainian counterpart, who himself went to these areas on the sidelines of Armed Forces Day.
“We always start by remembering our fallen heroes, all those who gave their lives for Ukraine,” he said, adding that in 2023, on this very day of celebration, he hoped to find his soldiers “in our Ukrainian regions” of Lugansk, Donetsk and Crimea.
This visit is important on several levels. “Even if this visit is prepared, it is presented as a modern response to the video of Putin on the Crimean bridge. He has several messages to convey” to the Ukrainians, to the West but also to the Russians. The idea is also to “outwit Putin” by remembering that “the counteroffensive is not over.”
“It’s aimed at both domestic and Ukrainian politicians… Every night he has a talk where he explains what’s going on. It’s aimed at the Russians, at the international community that they need for armament and support.” adds Cedric Mas. , still on our antenna.
In total, Volodymyr Zelensky released two videos of himself in the Donbass, a region that Moscow claimed to annex in September, without fully controlling it.
Source: BFM TV
