Female Ukrainian soldiers are taking to the video-sharing app TikTok to post glam pictures and videos of themselves in their bid to win the soft power propaganda war with Russia.
Clips of glamorous women in Ukrainian military uniforms dancing, fooling around in barracks, and even holding bullets have gone viral on social media.
As tensions between Russia and Ukraine remain strained, sharing candid videos and pictures of troops behind the scenes have become another front for a quasi-war.
Typically, the videos feature soldiers performing dances, but some also show female troops taking apart and reassembling weapons, or having fun in barracks.
One TikTok video shows a group of young women miming along to a song while dressed in military uniforms with the Ukrainian flag and military insignia.
The group appears to be outside a military barracks in Ukraine.
On the same account, the young woman shares a series of pictures and short videos of herself and fellow recruits posing and carrying out military drills.
The account has racked up almost 35k followers and nearly 600k likes.
Another account features clips of three young female recruits in military fatigues posing together on manoeuvers in the woods, pretending to spank each other in their barracks, and sleeping in their quarters.
The account, with almost 5k followers and 52k likes, has the bio: “Girl with the camouflage heart,” in reference to her military service.
Iryna Greytsarovska, who has more than 3k followers and 27k likes, says in her TikTok bio: “Ukraine above all.”
She shares a number of videos of herself singing and dancing while wearing her Ukrainian military uniform.
A further account, belonging to a female soldier Katiusha, features a number of glamorous videos of the recruit and her comrades in full fatigues, dancing sexily and on patrol in a full face of make-up.
Her account has quickly grown to almost 30k followers and almost 500k likes.
An Instagram account linked to one of the TikTok pages includes a picture of a female Ukrainian soldier holding bullets in her manicured hand next to a large gun.
“This is love,” the caption of the bullet picture reads.
Such videos and pictures appear to serve a soft power role for Ukraine, and receive glowing praise in Ukrainian media.
A clip of Ukrainian commando Oleksandr Kolym dancing to Whitney Houston’s “Queen Of The Night” recently went viral, with comments praising the “indestructibility of the Ukrainian spirit” and expressing the belief that Ukraine “will definitely win with that sort of attitude”.
It comes after Ukraine expanded military conscription to include all women “fit for military service” between the ages of 18 and 60 as threats with Russia rose.
The edict from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense in December 2021 means that in the event of a major war, this female reserve can be mobilized as part of the national reserve to serve in a broad range of military specialties.
“This is not about conscription after reaching some age, as it is for men,” Ukrainian MP Oleksandra Ustinova said.
“And considering more than 122,000 Russian troops are at our borders, the decision seems logical, timely, and sensible.”
Speaking to Coffee or Die Magazine, Ustinova said: “This sends a powerful signal to Moscow that Ukrainians are ready to resist.
“Although we strive for introduction of the contract army, in current situation, the decision to educate as many people as possible to hold arms and to be ready to serve seems a good one.”
As relations between Kiev and Moscow remain tense, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has visited Russia to warn of sanctions if Vladimir Putin’s army doesn’t stand down.
In a frosty joint meeting with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Putin’s minister mocked the talks with Truss as “like talking to a deaf person”.
On Monday, the UK’s Defense Secretary Ben Wallace announced Britain will send 350 extra troops to Poland about fears Russia could invade Ukraine “any day”.
Today, a Ukrainian colonel showed off his new British-supplied military equipment as he roared “God Save The Queen” in praise.
As his troops tried out their new anti-tank rocket launchers. Lieutenant Colonel Ihor Bezogluk of Ukraine’s 72nd Brigade told The Sun: “God Save the Queen and thank you so much to Britain for giving us the NLAWS.
“We are so pleased with all the support from around the world – especially Britain. This has boosted morale and it will make the Russians think.
“Anything that will help us defend our country is very well received and these missiles have changed the war for us.
“It means we can fight the Russians and it does not matter how many of them there are – now that we have a way of stopping their armour.”
last week, Ukrainian civilians attended open military training amid fears of an imminent invasion.
A picture of a Ukrainian woman, 59, in a headscarf holding a wooden gun during a military training exercise went viral earlier this month.
Ukrainian officials and the West fear there could be an attack over the next month – with a flurry of cyber attacks and flashes of violence in the Donbas region.
The Donbas has been at war since 2014 as Russian-backed separatists fight to break away from the Ukraine.
Kiev and Moscow have been feuding for the past eight years as Russia doesn’t like the fact Ukraine is becoming closer to the West.
Both former Soviet states used to be allies – but Ukraine’s government now seeks to draw closer ties the US, UK and Europe, potentially even joining NATO.
Paranoid leader Vlad sees Kiev signing up for the defensive alliance as a direct threat to Russia.
Ukraine’s leaders have urged their people not to panic as the shadow of invasion looms – but they are taking no chances.
As reported in the German publication BILDa foreign intelligence service says it has gathered details of Russia‘s “post-war plans” for Ukraine, which it says are currently being discussed in top Russian military circles.
Even though Russia has not invaded Ukraine, preparations for this scenario are already underway.
According to the report, the Russian army plans to encircle and besiege Ukraine’s major cities after destroying the country’s forces in the field.
After this, secret service sleeper cells already smuggled into Ukraine, as well as local politicians loyal to Vladimir Putinwould be activated in the towns, while “secret service agents would penetrate into the cities”.
They would have the task of “establishing pro-Russia leaderships in the cities” which would then “agree on the surrender and handover” to the Russian occupiers.
According to BILD, Russian intelligence forces would next “seize strategic facilities, eliminate threats, recruit those willing to cooperate and establish a new leadership in the conquered cities.”
This practice would be used in all of Ukraine’s key cities until all of them “peacefully” came under Russian control.
Following the capture of Ukraine’s cities, the report states, Putin plans to set up a puppet parliament in the country, a so-called “People’s Rada”.
This would replace the Ukrainian parliament and declare it null and void.
Security service sources state: “This People’s Rada will become the puppet legislature of Ukraine, peppered with so-called representatives previously selected by the Russian secret service.”
Out of this sham parliament would emerge a “backup government” which would rule the country according to Russia’s will.
According to the secret service, this would give the coup “the appearance of democracy and legal protection”.
To push through such a plan would require massive propaganda efforts by Russian media in Ukraine and the West, while pro-Russian “experts” and politicians would be used to justify the invasion and takeover of Ukraine.
Next, would follow the darkest stage of Putin’s alleged plans – the breaking of ordinary Ukrainians’ resistance by the puppet government.
The report states that the government’s role “would be to declare a state of emergency and, particularly threatening, to implement the Russian plan to set up camps in which those Ukrainians who showed themselves to be uncooperative would be sorted out.”
Camps for the detention of pro-Ukrainian activists are allegedly already being planned, with lists drawn up of who will be locked up.
Newly-established pro-Russian secret services would then help with the terrorizing of Ukraine’s population to break the country’s resistance, using the suppression of the pro-democracy movement in Belarus after 2020’s stolen election as a potential model.
It is alleged that Russia’s security service the FSB is currently training pro-Russian groups for deployment in Ukraine and that Putin has tasked them with recruiting Ukrainian politicians and eliminating opponents of the Kremlin.
The end goal of this invasion would be the calling of a nationwide referendum on absorbing Ukraine into Russia.
According to the report, “a full-scale invasion is currently the most likely scenario.”
Military expert Robert Lee from King’s College London told BILD: “Russia will probably have most of the armed forces it plans to deploy in a week and could then escalate the situation in the short term if it so chooses.”
Russia’s embassy has denied any such plan to invade and take over Ukraine, branding the report “a strange mixture of speculation and rumors” that “the embassy fundamentally does not comment on.”
This story originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.
