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.

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.

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.