Ukraine-Russia Conflict Memes for People Who Prefer to Laugh In the Midst of Crisis

Mel Dawn

Feb 23, 2022 1:00 PM EST

What do we do in times of international crisis, impending doom, and possibly the threat of world war? Meme about it of course!

If you haven't heard, there's trouble brewing (once again) in Eastern Europe as Russia gears up to "perform peacekeeping functions" in the separatist republics of eastern Ukraine. Plebs like us are mostly just confused, but that doesn't mean we can't make dumb jokes and memes about an international crisis whose complex history dates back to the Cold War. If you feel too numbed by the last two years of the pandemic to even fully process the threat of another catastrophe, sometimes laughing out loud helps to drown out the internal screaming.

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Sometimes, all we can do is meme.
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Unsurprisingly, American Instagram influencers are suddenly experts on international affairs, offering "thoughts and prayers" and vague opinions that probably have Putin shaking in his boots.
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The official @Ukraine Twitter account has been on top of the meme game for months now.
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Even Ukrainians can have a sense of humor about the threat of invasion.
Redditors do what they do best: shitpost

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Some of the memes are dumber than others...
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Europe actually depends on Russia for about 40% of its natural gas, but the point still stands—if Russia cuts off Europe, there will be problems.
The U.S. Embassy attempts to meme

via @USEmbassyKyiv

On Tuesday, the official Twitter account of Kyiv's U.S. Embassy attempted to do a little propaganda using a meme comparing Kyiv and Moscow before the 1917 revolution, ostensibly in an attempt to clap back at Putin's speech on Monday, in which he stated, "Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, more precisely, Bolshevik, communist Russia. This process began immediately after the revolution of 1917...Ukraine has never had a tradition of genuine statehood."

The tweet was a big swing and a miss, as many pointed out that the meme actually proved Putin's point. "So the US state department is abandoning its core functions in Kyiv of serving the American nationals living there, and retreating to Poland to do memes that will, ironically, confirm in Russian minds that Kiev is the cradle of their civilization. Well done." @michaelbd tweeted.

Others used the same format to exhibit the meme's lazy logic.
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