How Ukraine won the #LikeWar

5) Showing a Man of the People

Before the war, Zelenskyy was little known outside of the region, while inside Ukraine, polls found him and his party with just 23 percent support. Essentially, he was the least unpopular of a set of deeply unpopular Ukrainian leaders, amid distrust of the government in general. These political dynamics may have tempted Putin to think just a slight push would topple the regime.

But just one week later, Zelenskyy has become a global icon and 91 percent of Ukrainians support his actions.

The former performer has done so with acts of personal bravery and deft use of messaging. A key has been how he has played simultaneously to multiple audiences: One is the Ukrainian people and soldiers, with Zelenskyy providing the all too rare example of a leader who is right there with them, sharing the very same risks literally in the streets and trenches.

The selfies of the youthful Zelenskyy in the field also stand in stark messaging contrast to the elderly Putin in his cold palace, literally distanced from even his own advisers by absurdly long tables. Yet, Zelenskyy’s “man of the people” messaging is also important to Ukraine’s essential strategic need to influence the audience of the West and its leaders. When he responded with pithy, meme-able remarks like “I need ammunition, not a ride” to American offers to evacuate him from Kyiv at the start of the war, or clapped back on Twitter at Italian leaders, he was hitting both emotive and political needs. Again, every act in a #LikeWar is about connecting the online show to a real-world goal. Zelenskyy demonstrating that that he was personally in the fight was the best way for him to accelerate the aid that Ukraine needed to stay in the fight.