Ukraine Tweets Hitler-Putin Cartoon Among Other Viral Memes On Russia

As Russian tanks and troops rolled into Ukraine and missiles rattled its cities, the country's official twitter account shared a cartoon depicting Nazi leader Adolf Hitler towering over a child-sized version of Vladimir Putin. The image of the two men gazing into each other's eyes racked over 1.4 million likes.

Ukraine put out a message to the world in the aftermath of their neighbor invading the country. They demanded Russia be booted off Twitter, urged people to donate to the Ukrainian army, and asked users to tag Russia and share “what you think about them,” all within roughly 24 hours.

“This is not a ‘meme’, but our and your reality right now,” the account clarified a few hours after putting up the cartoon, according to Quartz.

In addition to tweets about taking steps to help Ukraine stand against their aggressor, the verified Twitter account also retweeted the messages users had for Russia. Quite a few responses had poured in, according to USA TODAY.

Asking people to demand Russia be removed from Twitter, Ukraine tweeted there was “no place for an aggressor like Russia on western social media platforms.”

The Twitter account, which has unabashedly posted several cartoons and memes about their neighbor in the past, has a bio that reads: “Yes, this is the official Twitter account of Ukraine.”

Those responsible for the humorous tweets with a healthy dose of reality spoke to The Washington Post in January about trolling Russia with their memes.

Choosing to remain anonymous, they spoke to the publication via Twitter messages through Ukraine's official account. “Imagine a truly good person who’s been [through] a lot in the past, managed to overcome hardships and developed this very special type of sassy and darkish humor as a byproduct. This is what Ukraine is about,” they said.

“We laugh in the face of threats not because we underestimate them, but because what else should we do? Lay down and cry? Tears have never won anyone freedom,” the account handler(s) continued, adding that the intention behind sharing these memes was to inform the world about the harsh reality their country is living in because of Russian aggression.

“Most probably, in the wider public, especially in countries far from Ukraine, people actually know very little about the real causes of Russia’s current aggressiveness and threats against Ukraine,” they told the outlet. “So we had one very practical task to achieve with this meme, which is to explain to some large and distant target audiences that Russia is the problem here, not Ukraine, the West, the U.S., NATO, aliens or anyone else. This meme hit just there, delivering a very simple, yet important message: 'Russia is the headache, Russia is the problem of the current escalation.'”