Substituting accountability for war with Ukrainians’ and Russians’ everyday “closeness”

What it claims

Shared linguistic and everyday habits of Ukrainians and Russians are presented as proof that hostility between them is produced by artificial “pitting against each other.” A story about selling ice cream in Canada is inflated into a conclusion about Ukrainians’ attitudes in general. Different assessments of strikes are reduced to the symmetrical guilt of “both sides.”

Target audience

Examples (paraphrased)

We paraphrase rather than quote: propaganda's exact wording is built to spread, so we carry the claim and not the craft. Each example cites the post it came from.

• Ukrainians in Canada prefer buying ice cream from a Russian because a shared taste shows they can easily understand one another again.

  ЗеРада, 29 Aug 2026 · Archived copy

• Strikes on logistics warehouses are approved while strikes on civilian sites are condemned, although both sides are equally guilty for the war.

  ЗеРада, 28 Aug 2026

  t.me/ZeRada1/32005

We link archived copies rather than the posts themselves, so that checking our work sends no traffic to the source. Where a platform cannot be archived, we print the post's address instead of linking it.

Goal

Persuade Russian-speaking communities abroad to view the war as an artificially imposed conflict and to distribute responsibility for it equally between the sides.

Techniques used

• Causal OversimplificationShared tastes and language are presented as an explanation for the origins of war and hostility between societies.
• Loaded LanguageDisagreement and estrangement are labeled “pitting against each other,” presenting them as the result of outside influence.

The real grievance it exploits

The war has divided people with closely connected linguistic and cultural experiences, while life abroad under compulsion can intensify the pain of losing familiar ties and a sense of belonging.

How to counter

• Technique exposure: A personal encounter or a shared habit does not measure the views of an entire community. Notice when such an episode is turned into an explanation of the war and responsibility for it.
• Reframe: Cultural closeness can matter for human interaction, but it does not remove the need to distinguish between the actions of states, armed forces, and civilians.

Sources (all time)

• ЗеРадаTier 1425,323 subscribers
  2 posts · 28–29 Aug 2026

  • 29 Aug · Archived copy
  • 28 Aug · t.me/ZeRada1/32005