Ukraine at War: Reflections on Popular Culture as a Geopolitical Battlespace

Abstract

Drawing on my previous work on how Western cultural producers have constructed the post-Soviet realm, as well as the feedback loop of popular culture wherein the region’s (non-)state actors mould their images for consumption abroad, this article reflects on popular culture as a mechanism of the Ukraine-Russia war (2022–present). The specific focus is on how Russia’s full-scale invasion and Ukraine’s defence of its territory exemplify the current state of popular culture as a geopolitical battlespace. following a brief overview of the popular culture-world politics continuum, I delineate the pivotal role that social media memes play in the current military conflict via a case study of the twitter/x feed of Ukrainian Memes Forces (UMF), which employs various forms of youth-oriented visual intertextuality and comedic pastiche to establish Ukraine as a ‘cool,’ adaptable, non-ideological agent against an ‘uncool,’ hidebound, ideological foe (Russia-Putin-USSR).

Keywords

• ukraine
• russia
• popular geopolitics
• war
• memes
• strategic narratives