Today, Russia and Ukraine are at war against each other. Propaganda from both sides of the war between Ukraine and Russia is fueling violence and hatred between Ukraine’s ethnic groups.

Together with "Informational resistance", a Ukrainian non-governmental organization, we decided to disarm the propaganda war with a clear message of peace, rooted in the days when Ukrainians and Russians were brothers: the second World War, when Ukrainians and Russians fought and died together to defeat Nazi Germany.

We did this with two short films that we produced in Russian with Ukrainian subtitles. It was especially important to have the Ukrainian characters speak in Russian in order to reach audiences of Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Russia with this propaganda for peace.

The story of this campaign is still developing. The campaign launched just two days before we produced the case film. It has already caused an enormous response in Ukraine and Russia. The films have already been seen over 2 million times on YouTube (with no seeding at all), Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko shared the films as he congratulated all veterans on Victory Day, and all major TV news channels in Ukraine and independent TV Rain channel in Russia have broadcasted both films multiple times, flooding social media platforms with messages of peace and solidarity.

Our goal was to reach audiences of Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Russians with this call for peace and solidarity.

We aimed to disarm the propaganda war with a clear message of peace, rooted in the days when Ukrainians and Russians were brothers, fought and died together to defeat Nazi Germany. We wanted to send clear message to all people of Ukraine despite of language, ethnic group and traditions.

The story of this campaign is still developing. The campaign launched just three days before we produced the case film and it has already caused an enormous response in Ukraine and Russia.

The films have already been seen over 2 million times on YouTube (with no seeding at all), Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko shared the films as he congratulated all veterans on Victory Day, and all major TV news channels in Ukraine and Russia have broadcast both films multiple times, flooding social media platforms with messages of peace and solidarity from both sides.

Campaign has got free broadcasting as public awareness advertising on Ukrainian media. Multiple articles about it appeared in Forbes, BBC, the Economist etc.

Two short films are produced in Russian with Ukrainian subtitles. It was especially important to have the Ukrainian characters speak in Russian in order to reach audiences in Russia and Russian-speaking Ukrainians with this message for peace.

In one of the videos a young Ukrainian soldier calls his grandfather, a Soviet Army veteran. The soldier speaks in Russian, congratulating his grandfather on Victory Day—a national holiday commemorating the end of WWII. The young soldier says the Soviet slogan “Happy Victory Day” and his grandfather replies “Glory to Ukraine."

These two emotionally and politically charged phrases together create a powerful effect, shattering the illusion of a divided Ukraine.

In the second film a nurse at a war hospital has a similar conversation with her grandmother. After the press-conference where the films were presented they went viral within a day covering not only Ukrainian, but also Russian, Belarus and international media.

Ukraine is a tolerant multinational country attacked by Russian Federation which openly supplies weapons to mercenaries in the East of Ukraine.

Now Ukrainians are facing an informational war. The propaganda is breaking Ukraine from within. It divides people: Russian speaking – Ukrainian speaking, Soviet Army – Resistance Army etc. The tension grows by Victory day – a sacred holiday for half of the country, mainly Russian speaking Ukrainians whose ancestors have been Soviet Army soldiers. Favorite messages of Russian propaganda are that Ukrainians hate Russians, punish for Russian language and prohibit veterans to wear war medals on the Victory Day.

Our strategy was to make films, which show that Ukrainians are open for peace dialogue. In order to reach Russian-speaking audience whose grandparents were soldiers of Soviet Army we invited legendary actors from the most popular Ukrainian movies about the WWII and present their civic stand. From the childhood every modern Ukrainian knows them as symbols of the Victory Day. They are supposed to be “pro-Russian” and “anti-Ukrainian”, but they are not indeed.

We wrote a script about two generations: WWII veterans and their grandchildren, which are at frontline at this moment. The plan was to present these films on the press-conference and share them through web to gain attention of main Ukrainian media. We asked them for free placement of these films on main TV channels, and this goal was successfully fulfilled due to enormous impact of the campaign.