I thought this was a joke, but apparently not. Sarah Ashton-Cirillo is an American transgender “woman” who has become a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, whose broadcasts are intended to “objectively cover the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war” according to Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar.

So how good is Sarah at his job? Watch.

From today’s episode of Ukraine in the Know;

Blood drips from Vlad Putin’s mouth and he bathes in the blood of innocent Ukrainian children. pic.twitter.com/fyS1kEEPID

— Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (@SarahAshtonLV) August 14, 2023

Pretty good at objectively covering the Russian-Ukrainian war.

When I saw this video I kinda chuckled, until I looked into the claims in Sarah’s biography to be a member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and an official spokesperson for the country. It seemed too bizarre to be true.

It’s 2023, though, so I shouldn’t have been surprised to find out that it was true.

⚡️ In another bizarre video, the Ukrainian spokesperson Sarah Ashton-Cirillo says Russians aren’t human pic.twitter.com/JO5QNeSXjw

— What the media hides. (@narrative_hole) August 8, 2023

The Washington Blade, an LGBTQ newspaper, did a glowing profile of Ashton-Cirillo (which sounds like a cigar I once smoked).

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have named a transgender soldier from the U.S. as one of its English-speaking spokespeople.

The Kyiv Post, an English-language newspaper, last week in a tweet noted Sarah Ashton-Cirillo “has become one of the speakers for the Defense Forces.” Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar is among those who praised Ashton-Cirillo.

“Sara informs the English-speaking audience — she objectively covers the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war, debunks Russian fakes and propaganda,” said Malyar, according to the Kyiv Post. “Sarah’s audience reach on Twitter alone was 28.3 million users. So, the enemies get excited on hateful social networks, of course. However, this has only increased Sarah’s audience.”

I am not sure whether the Ukrainians have a warped sense of what the average English speaker in their audience is looking for when searching for “objective” news or whether they are simply catering to the doddering old fool who currently sits in the Oval Office.

Or I should say, sits in the Oval Office 3 days a week or so, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., before planning his next vacation and taking a long nap.

Whatever the reason, I am pretty sure that Sarah’s commentary as an official spokesman from the Ukrainian military will do little to bolster the American public’s flagging support for the war in Ukraine.

This is profoundly unserious stuff, more worthy of a Saturday Night Live skit than even wartime propaganda. At the beginning of the war I was amazed at how good Zelenskyy was at propaganda–and I mean that as a compliment. Rallying the troops and gaining support from allies was a primary job of his, and he accomplished it with seeming ease.

This, though, does not strike me as a masterstroke. Support for the war, which initially was bipartisan, has become more partisan over time, and using a transgender whacko as a means to recruit support for the war effort is unlikely to endear Ukraine to the people least likely to support them already.

There is one thing Ashton-Cirillo could do to gain respect from the more conservative set here in America: recruit a battalion of blue-haired transgender zealots and school librarians to fight on Ukraine’s front lines, putting Dylan Mulvaney in charge of the unit.

Millions of Americans would cheer them on, likely showering them with rose petals as they march off to war.

I know I would be among the first to cheer them on as they depart the country to fight for the right to bring makeup, wigs, and high heels into combat. Ukraine could even follow Biden’s lead and provide “gender-affirming surgery” to those who join up.

It would be a stunning and brave move.