Zelensky is winning the messaging war against an aloof Putin

After successfully evacuating more than 338,000 surrounded British troops from Dunkirk, France, in June 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill memorably declared:

“We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets; we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God’s good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old.”

After rejecting a U.S. evacuation offer on Feb. 26, embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered a similarly defiant but more concise response: “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.” 

It is truly awe-inspiring to see and hear a leader conducting himself like so many ordinary Ukrainian citizens who are willing to risk their lives in fighting far superior Russian forces. 

“I am here. We are not putting down arms. We will be defending our country, because our weapon is truth, and our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children, and we will defend all of this,” Zelensky also declared on Saturday in a video on Twitter, which has been viewed on his account alone nearly 20 million times. 

Churchill, of course, didn’t have the power of social media that Zelensky is utilizing perfectly to instantly broadcast to the world through an app on a smartphone. But what few people know is that Churchill’s iconic “We shall fight on the beaches” speech wasn’t heard beyond his audience ​in the British House of Commons until decades later. 

Per Smithsonian Magazine: “The speech has been spliced into countless documentaries and recreated in several films, including the Churchill biopic ‘Darkest Hour.’ But history has colored most people’s recollections of this oration. It was not the immediate morale booster we imagine, and actually depressed quite a few Brits. It was also, arguably not for them, but instead for the Americans who were still watching the war from the sidelines.”

Americans are watching from the sidelines in 2022 with Ukraine as well, and what they’re seeing, for now, is that ​Russia’s Vladimir Putin clearly did not expect this level of resistance, nor did the world. 

The Russian president also believed his misinformation war would win the messaging battle, but the internet is still working in Ukraine, allowing Zelensky and ordinary citizens to broadcast to the world from their smartphones. To that end, Zelensky, broadcasting from Kyiv to the European Union, received a standing ovation following his speech.  

“Western Allies See Kyiv Falling to Russian Army Within Hours” reads a Feb. 24 Bloomberg headline ​on a story reporting that ​Ukraine’s capital “may fall to Russian forces in a matter of hours as Ukraine’s air defenses have been effectively eliminated.” The story quotes “a senior Western intelligence official.”

Other headlines and stories said the same: Kyiv was already lost; Putin would have a puppet regime installed quickly; Zelensky and other members of the Ukrainian government would be rounded up and either assassinated or sent to camps. 

“We know that they have not made the progress that they have wanted to make, particularly in the north. They have been frustrated by what they have seen is a very determined resistance,” an unnamed U.S. defense official told Reuters over the weekend as Ukraine continued its resistance and the world’s condemnation of Putin grew louder.

Zelensky himself was mocked by some in the media as just a former comedian who was in way over his head. This portrayal was most notable in a ​Feb. 21 New York Times guest essay — “The Comedian-Turned-President Is Seriously in Over His Head,” by Olga Rudenko, published shortly before the Russian invasion​ began. 

Rudenko likely would love​ to have this one back. ​Four days after her essay was published, she tweeted something of a concession when Zelensky emerged as a heroic, defiant figure: “President Volodymyr Zelensky has made many really bad mistakes, and I’m sure will make many more, but today he’s showing himself worthy of the nation he’s leading.” 

One can only wonder how all of this is going to end. Putin has plunged Europe into its worst military crisis since World War II. The ​U.S.-Russian ​”reset” started under then-President Obama has been turned on its head. The U.S. and Russia are into ​a Cold War mode that has not been seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Sanctions​ by nations far and wide are being leveled against the Kremlin; several key Russian banks have been cut off from the SWIFT ​global banking payment system, and Russia’s central bank is fenced in.  

These measures may not deter Putin in the near-term. And it’s hard to see Ukraine being able to stave off the Russian military permanently, as large convoys enter Kyiv. But even if Putin does eventually take Ukraine, civilians may well turn the country into Afghanistan 2.0 for Russia.  

“We’re all here. Our military is here. Citizens in society are here. We’re all here defending our independence, our country, and it will stay this way,” Zelensky vowed while wearing a military-style uniform on social media, after Russian media reported that he had fled the country on Friday night. 

Trust in our leaders, our government, has fallen drastically since the days of Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. Only 2-in-5 Americans trust our government, according to a recent poll by Mourning Consult.  

We could use more leaders with the courage of Zelensky these days. ​He appears to be the unlikely Winston Churchill from an unlikely place ​in our time. 

Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist.