Defense of Ukraine’s cat and soldier pictures are a public relations coup

by Michael Broad · February 12, 2023

OPINION: Don’t get me wrong. I love the Twitter photographs published by Defense of Ukraine. This appears to be a public relations Department of the Ukrainian military. They are very savvy. They know what they’re doing. They present a very humane side of this horrendous conflict.

They present to the world through a very popular Twitter feed images and videos of the Ukrainian military and life in Ukraine during this conflict. The images include those of dogs and cats because some Ukrainian soldiers have adopted dogs and cats both for company and for a utilitarian reason. Defense of Ukraine must have professional photographers and video makers at the front capturing useful images and footage.

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Cats and Ukrainian soldiers comfort each other. Image by Defense of Ukraine.

Dogs are very functional in the Ukrainian trenches. They have great hearing and sense of smell and can detect activity which the soldiers might miss. The dogs help to protect them. This is in complete contrast to the Russian invaders’ attitude towards these companion animals. They simply kill and eat them! That’s what’s been reported. They were probably drunk on vodka and freezing to death at the time. This is ironic because dogs and cats are eating the corpses of Russian soldiers which reflects the Armageddon-like scenario created by Putin, the devil’s disciple.

But this, I think, although a realistic representation of the conflict, is part of the objective of the publicity machinery from Defense of Ukraine.

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They want to present to the world that the Russian invaders are barbarians from a terrorist state (which they are judged by the reports). On the other hand, they want to represent the Ukrainian people and their military who are defending their country as human beings. As ordinary people suffering under this illegal, terrorism and mass murder.

And in meeting this objective, they like to publish pictures like the one we see on this page. It’s a really cute photograph of a tabby-and-white domestic cat sleeping on a Ukrainian shoulder’s chest while they wait to fight the Russians.

I don’t know whether it has been set up. It probably has but that doesn’t really make any difference. I’ve seen similar photographs from the trenches and make no mistake this is trench warfare in the East of Ukraine. It is similar to the First World War conflict.

Ukraine Army Cats and Dogs. Fighter and his dog. Brilliant. Photo: Twitter.

The Ukrainians have dug in with deep trenches to defend against a big push which is expected on the one-year anniversary which kicks in on February 24. You can expect some fireworks on that day.

The Defense of Ukraine’s use of Twitter is a tool they can use to support the fighting military. They rightly want to present to the world that Ukraine is a peace-loving sovereign state which has been illegally invaded by a terrorist country. That, in my opinion, reflects reality. But they’ve got to get the message across to the world that this is happening.

And of course, we know there are other countries such as India who are ambivalent about the war. They continue buy Russian gas and oil. For me, this is shameful. India should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for putting business over the lives of tens of thousands of innocent citizens of Ukraine.

But of course, I am writing from a biased position. But I have a similar or identical opinion to the vast majority of other citizens across the world. Anybody with eyes to see understands that Putin has made a catastrophic and murderous decision which can ultimately only go one way: against him. It’s going to end badly for Putin but in the meantime many thousands of Ukrainians will be killed defending their country or it’ll be an innocent civilian sitting in her flat reading a book with her cat on her lap.

I say good for Defense of Ukraine for consistently turning out these great photographs and videos on Twitter.

There is one ironic aspect of this photograph. Currently, there have been devastating earthquakes across Turkey and into Syria. People are dying under piles of rubble which was their former home. People have come together to help save lives.

In Ukraine, Russia is destroying apartments and turning Ukrainian cities to rubble and no one comes to help from outside Ukraine to save the lives of those civilians under the rubble.

Of course, there are countries such as the UK and the USA primarily who are at the forefront of helping Ukraine win the war through the supply of military armaments. This is the right thing to do.