SPECIAL | In Ukraine, one secret coping strategy is humor. Can it last?
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2024
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
As the Russian war in Ukraine approaches the two year mark, for Ukraine’s 40 plus million citizens there appears to be very little to be hopeful about. US and EU weapons funding has stalled while civilian casualties have topped 10,000, and counting. What’s the secret coping strategy Ukrainians use to deal with all this? According to one journalist, it’s humor. Ukrainian journalist and fellow at London-based think tank Chatham House, Olga Tokariuk joins The Excerpt to discuss the way humor has become a force for unity and resilience among Ukrainians.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wunderry Plus subscribers can listen to USA Today's The Excerpt, ad free right now. |
| 0:05.0 | Join Wunderry Plus in the Wundery app. |
| 0:08.0 | Hello and welcome to the Excerpt. I'm Kim Helmgart. As the Russian |
| 0:16.4 | Warren Ukraine approaches the two-year mark for Ukraine's 40-plus million citizens |
| 0:21.3 | there appears to be very little to be hopeful about. |
| 0:25.3 | U.S. and EU weapons funding has stalled while civilian casualties have topped 10,000. |
| 0:31.8 | Meanwhile, Russian airstrikes continue to pummel city centers across Ukraine. |
| 0:37.1 | What's the secret coping strategy Ukrainians use to deal with all this? |
| 0:41.7 | According to one journalist, it's humor. Here to help us dig into it is |
| 0:45.7 | Ukrainian journalist and a fellow at London-based think tank Chatham House, Olga Tukharuk. Olga, thanks for joining me. Ogden, |
| 0:53.0 | Thanks for joining me. |
| 0:55.0 | Hello Kim and thank you for having me. |
| 0:57.0 | Ogden, you recently wrote an article for the Reuters Institute |
| 1:01.0 | entitled From Meams to Morale, |
| 1:03.6 | Decoding Ukraine's Comedy Arsenal against disinformation. |
| 1:08.0 | First of all, Olga, what is Ukraine's comedy arsenal? |
| 1:11.4 | And secondly, how is it helping to fight disinformation? |
| 1:15.0 | Yeah, that's a very good question. |
| 1:16.7 | You know, I think Ukrainian resistance and resilience to Russia's full-scale invasion has got |
| 1:21.5 | many by surprise. Very few people in the West expected Ukraine to hold |
| 1:27.6 | against a much bigger, a much stronger enemy, at least that's the way that Russia was perceived initially but |
| 1:37.2 | almost two years into the invasion we see that Ukraine is still holding Ukraine Ukraine is still there, Ukraine had some successes on the battlefield |
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