Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February, Ukraine has been hailed as an example of how to defend against tyranny on the battlefield. The country used the Starlink satellite internet system to maintain communications as its own infrastructure was being destroyed, and launched a social media campaign to win support.
Russia's leaders have been stuck in the past century's obsolete strategic thinking despite having a far more powerful army. They were not prepared for the powerful, precise, Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones that Ukraine has used to decimate Russian tanks and ships. The IT Army hackers told me that they were launching distributed denial of service attacks against Russian websites, as well as posting pro-Ukrainian propaganda and news on sites Russia had not yet censor. Teenagers and twentysomethings are in bedrooms and living rooms around the world, not master cyber warriors with black ops training. They learned the basics of hacking in a few days with the help of internet searches and articles. They said they were able to punch through Russia's weak defenses with a few weeks of practice.
When I arrived in Ukranian in March, I wanted to understand how technology was changing war. The use of drones had upended the balance of power with Russia. I talked to hackers about their failures and successes. I began to hear from Ukrainians that their experience of the war has changed from an intense and enthusiastic defense of the nation into a long stretches of eerie silence, with each new announcement of a Ukrainian or Russian advance.
I met Volodymyr Zelensky in May at the presidential palace. The comedian-turned-president who has captured global attention and successfully guilted world leaders into helping his country did not look like the confident, charismatic person we are used to seeing on TV and social media. He looked exhausted, his hands jittery and his eyes sunken. He was anxious and uncertain. As he answered my questions about the state of the war, the world's reaction to it, and the role technology had played in helping Ukraine resist the Russian military machine, his answers became poetic, with a smile or a retort.
Zelensky called on Big Tech to pull out of Russia, praised Musk's Starlink, and explained why modern leaders have to appeal to the distracted social media generation in this wide-ranging interview.
He acknowledged that the war has taken a toll on Ukrainians. I asked if he had any regrets. Would he have done something differently? He said that the question should be asked of the Russian president.
Many people say that you are a skilled social media communicator. How do you keep the attention of an audience with short attention spans? How do you keep people from thinking about the war?
Zelensky is in a social network. Most of our lives are already online, so it's no longer about whether it's good or not. People read and study online. This is our world now. It is not unanimous. The internet is a reality. It is a modern reality, not another world. If you want people to see you as you are, you need to use what people use.
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