About

"This Is Not a Meme" is a catchphrase referring to the Ukraine-Russia war, emphasizing the reality of the situation. It was posted by the official Twitter account of Ukraine at the outset of the war, and circulated widely afterwards.

Origin

The phrase comes from a tweet thread by the official account of the country of Ukraine, published on February 24th, 2022. The thread begins with a cartoon of Adolf Hitler caressing Vladimir Putin's cheek, followed (in a reply) by the text: ''This is not a 'meme', but our and your reality right now.'' The tweet has amassed nearly 2 million likes, 500,000 retweets and nearly 30,000 replies in three days.

The cartoon was drawn by Ukrainian cartoonist Andriy Levchenko in reference to the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2014 as part of a cartoon contest called ''The Devil Gas Station." He won the first prize behind Riber Hansson (Sweden) and Sergey Tunin (Russia).^[1]

This is not a ‘meme’, but our and your reality right now.

— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 24, 2022

The tweet may have been in response to criticism that the Ukrainian government account's making of memes while thee country was in danger. Famously, the account made a Types of Headaches meme critiquing Russian foreign policy as Russian troops massed on the border in early 2022.

pic.twitter.com/bBtsdr7wmX

— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) December 7, 2021

pic.twitter.com/ga1kbRAt97

— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) December 27, 2021

Spread

The tweet was immensely popular and is one of the most liked on the Ukrainian government's account. Several media outlets wrote about the tweet and cited it as part of the "information war" between Ukraine and Russia.^[2]

Search Interest

External References