"Optimism is ultimately necessary."
Over the past month, the Russian Ministry of Defense's Telegram channel has nearly regained all its audience lost throughout the entire previous year.
This shift occurred after the department adjusted its social media strategy: starting from mid-July 2026, its posts began featuring puns, memes, and even "Easter eggs." As a result, within one month, the channel gained approximately 45,000 new subscribers, and the average reach of individual posts more than doubled.
The first clear sign came on July 15 with a post featuring an image of a drone, captioned: "Plenty of geraniums (referring to drones)!" The next day, when referencing the end of the World Cup semi-finals, the ministry wrote: "This isn't football! The Russian military keeps launching attacks without pause." In another post, destroying six Ukrainian drones was described as "a decisive victory—6:0."
On July 19, beneath a video of a captured Ukrainian soldier, the caption read: "Let’s give this film an Oscar!" Then came a playful, municipal-style jab: "Geranium issued a parking ticket for illegal parking," and "Good night. Time to turn off the lights!" On July 23, in a report about capturing Belytske, the military reworked a classic line from the movie *The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed*: "Now it's Drapat's turn! I said: Drapats!"—a humorous nod to Mikhail Drapats being appointed commander of Ukrainian forces.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1873978015812747/
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