Gabriel Elefteriu
President Zelensky has a new “victory plan,” which he has brought with him on his visit to the United States this week. It has been kept secret and will only be made public after President Biden sees it. The mystery and sense of anticipation created around this great unveiling rank as yet another Ukrainian PR masterstroke. This story now has the entire West holding its breath for the magic solution that has so far eluded everyone else. Of course, nothing of the sort is really on the cards.
Ending a war of this size and brutality will require more than a try at media alchemy: “narratives” don’t tend to transform into frontline military units. The tragedy of hard choices and the necessity of facing the full facts of this conflict cannot be avoided, no matter how good the speeches or how clever the symbolism of signing artillery shells in Biden’s hometown of Scranton, PA.
This is not to say that these things don’t matter – far from it. Shaping global opinion in his nation’s favour and boosting the morale of his heroic people is absolutely the duty of the Ukrainian president. Information warfare and strategic communications matter hugely in the 21st century. “Winning” on this intangible battlefield contributes directly to Zelensky’s enduring priority of obtaining more international support – military, financial and diplomatic – for Ukraine.
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