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Although the Australian Government has asked its citizens not to travel to Ukraine to fight against the Russian invasion, many Aussies are showing solidarity for the stricken nation by sharing heartfelt memes and joining the call to “arms” by hacking collective Anonymous.
Known as “tactical s***posting”, short videos are being made by Ukrainian soldiers and others on the frontlines which are shared worldwide by keyboard warriors.
Twitter user Peedu Tuisk, who is based in the Estonian cyber heartland of Tallinn, shared a Ukrainian soldier’s choice words with English subtitles which explicitly explain it is Russia’s last chance to surrender.
Meanwhile, other unverifiable posts reveal unhappy Russian soldiers who thought they were on a training exercise but would be shot as deserters if they tried to go home.
One meme, which shows a map of Russia clearly marked as “Russia” and its neighbour countries as “not Russia”, has not only been shared online but has also been used in placards in protests all over the world.
Other memes supporting Ukraine are also being circulated by Aussies online.
“The capital of Ukraine is Kyiv. Kyiv (pronounced Keev) is the transliteration from Ukrainian. Kiev (pronounced Key-ev) is the Russian transliteration. As one small way to stand with the Ukrainian people, try to stick to the first spelling and pronunciation,” one trending tweet stated.
Others retweet the words of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he was offered an escape route by the US: “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition”.
Aussies are also sharing Minister Kuleba’s call for volunteers in the war.
“Foreigners willing to defend Ukraine and world order as part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, I invite you to contact foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in your respective countries,” he tweeted.
“Together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too.”
However, Russia is also peddling its own information or misinformation across the online social space.
“Russian propaganda has gone off the rails and speculates Ukraine might be preparing to drop a ‘dirty bomb’ on the Russian territory,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted.
“This is a sick fake. Ukraine doesn’t have nuclear weapons, doesn’t conduct any work to create/acquire them.”
In response to community feedback from the Australian Russian-speaking community on misinformation, SBS swiftly moved to suspend the broadcast of news bulletins NTV Moscow and Russia Today.
As Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine continues, the Australian Government imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on the Russian President and remaining permanent members of Russia’s Security Council.
However, Foreign Minister Marise Payne warned that those who travel to fight in Ukraine with a non-government armed group on either side of the conflict or who recruit someone else to do so may be committing a criminal offence.
“It is very important for individuals who may seek to do this, to be clear of the provisions of Australian laws that may apply to their activity,” she said.
“Frankly, I would strongly encourage them to observe the travel advice, which is do not travel.”
Ukraine’s head of mission in Australia Volodymyr Shalkivskyi said his embassy fielded about 20 calls from Aussies wanting to head over and fight the Russians.
“We are grateful for all the Australians who are offering their assistance,” the charge d’affaires said.
While Minister Payne has revealed that the country has officially committed “cyber assistance” to Ukraine through NATO, she has not stated whether or not the assistance includes offensive cyber capabilities.
“The Australian Cyber Security Centre is highly alert to the fact that Russia is a major cyber actor and is working very closely with other elements across the government,” she said.
“In terms of our engagements with Ukraine, we had previously provided cyber security support through defence training in the last year.”
Meanwhile, Australia is supporting US nuclear deterrence through military communications installations on home soil.
A response has been sought about the legality of Australian hackers heeding the call from Anonymous to go to war.
This article was first published on Public Spectrum
Eliza Sayon is an experienced writer who specialises in corporate and government communications. She is the content producer for Public Spectrum, an online knowledge-based platform for and about the Australian public sector.
