Bloggers' power in Ukraine's quest for sovereignty

#euromaidan

What started as a protest quickly escalated to revolution and it was #Euromaidan on Twitter that fueled the transition. Not only were people in Kyiv like Vitaly Klitchko able to mobilize the masses to join in at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Ukrainians in the diaspora were able to help spread the word around the world. It was amazing how many Ukrainians worldwide took to their keyboards and screens. We were glued to social media, passing on any tidbit that might help the cause.  And then the Russians stepped in to Crimea. That's when the diaspora got really active.

Wearing my Ukrainian Trysub cap proudly

The role of the diaspora in countering propaganda

The propaganda machine that the ex-KGB chief Putin set in motion was at first laughable. Nobody was going to believe this, were they?  Nato and the EU weren't just going to let Putin go in an take a piece of Ukraine, were they?  They did and the propaganda got worse and spread throughout the Eastern Russian speaking regions. Well, there is one thing we Ukrainians can do. We can talk up and write up a storm. And we did, blogs, letters, and petitions directed at the public, politicians and anyone else who would listen.

Did we make a difference?  Hard to tell, but here we are still at it, still believing that we can contribute something significant to the cause of allowing the Ukrainians in Ukraine to make their own choices and build their own future. We countered the lies about Ukraine, we countered the misinformation about languages, we countered the suggestion that Russia and Ukraine have always been and should always be aligned as one. We continue to counter the untruthful allegations propagated by Putin and his media cronies. We have even explained, or tried to, why it's not "the Ukraine", why religion is such an issue, why political division is and has always been the challenge, why Julia Tymoshenko was not a good guy, and why corruption was a way of life.

We changed our FB profiles to include Ukrainian images, we wore our Ukrainian clothing, we spoke in interviews on radio and television, in newspapers and online.  We took to the streets in major cities in support. We talked to our neighbors and patiently answered questions. We've done more to reveal who Ukrainians are and what Ukraine is about than any generation before. We continue to do so as the war is not yet won. There is much to do.

The role of the internet in insurgency

Bloggers in Ukraine are turning to the Internet to publish the locations of troops in the country’s southeast, where the army is in the midst of a counter-terrorist operation against militants who have seized control of parts of major cities. A group called “Military Maps” on the Russian social network Vkontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, has created an app that allows any user to mark the location of soldiers and military equipment on maps of Ukraine. The service appears to be the work of separatist sympathizers hoping to provide rebel combatants with tactical intelligence.

"Attention: Ukraine's Ministry of Defense asks Internet-users to remain silent
about the movements of Ukrainian army troops."

The Ukrainian government has asked its citizens to remain silent about its troop movements, and it appears that there is finally some traction in the military's ability to make inroads against the terrorists who are leaving behind Russian tanks, missiles and massive stores of ammunition. This, too, we can propagate so that people understand just who was behind the unrest. The Ukrainian armed forces have pulled themselves together admirably but they need all the help we can get. 

A billboard for YouTube in NYC

The role of the Internet in Crowdfunding Military Supplies and Morale

A clever Ukrainian man got tired of hearing about the troops being so ill equipped they could not fight. So he started a fund with his own money to buy military supplies for the troops. Pretty soon they had set up a crowd sourcing site and raised enough funds to build a drone with which to take out rebel outposts with precision without jeopardizing civilian lives or troops. I'm sure it is not the first time a war has been funded online, but it's still pretty impressive.  http://www.narodniy.org.ua/#.U7mDV2tN71w.facebook

Now the troops have themselves taken to fixing airplanes and outdated equipment by mixing and matching parts from various inoperable units. And they are succeeding. It's amazing what a little inspiration can accomplish.  

I've been following President Petro Poroshenko's Facebook page-he's very good at this. I tried to be friends but it says he can't do that. Yeah well, I'm sure having millions of friends would be difficult. At least I can follow him. He's right there on the front lines with the troops and the people.

 

And behind them are the likes of YouTube who are advertising on billboards in New York telling us that we shouldn't just watch the news, we should get involved in making it. Guess what YouTube, we are! I wonder what Sergei thinks about all this?  

Have you taken a proactive stance on Ukraine?