Recent Comics Drawn to Illustrate Differing Feelings and Viewpoints About the Sudden Russian-Ukrainian Conflict

In February, Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Since then, many countries have supported Ukraine and Russia to assist their efforts to ‘maintain control.’ As the conflict continues, the world expresses its emotions toward the war through thought-provoking illustrations.

The above-featured illustration by China Daily is titled “Foolish move.” It appears to depict the nation’s take on EU sanctions against Russia.

Another comic by China Daily depicts similar suggestions regarding the United States’ motives amidst the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As shown below, the cartoon is titled “The false promise of EU-US relations.”

The British also weighed in with political cartoons relating to the conflict. For example, in ‘The Economist,’ KAL’s cartoon titled “The Challenge of Negotiating With Vldimir Putin,” alludes to the dictator’s unwillingness to back down from his plans against Ukraine, as shown below.

One cartoonist and communications consultant in Nairobi, Patrick Gathara, shared a carton titled, ‘pearl-clutching.’ He accompanied the artwork with an article detailing the unjustness of “European powers taking in refugees created by Russia’s aggression while shutting out those generated by their own invasions and occupations.” He compares it to Apartheid Israel, “doing exactly the same thing to Palestinians [with] no calls for sanctions or isolations there.” [i]

Another artist, Julia Babkina, depicts Vladimir Putin’s reasoning behind the Ukrainian invasion in the cartoon below.

Finally, another cartoon by artist KAL depicts Russia and China exchanging a wine toast over “high-handed power grabs.” Putin is accused of a “desperate attempt to grab Ukrainian lands [as] a show of strength that comes at the cost of the collapse of Moscow’s soft power.” [ii]

How would you interpret each of these illustrations?

References

[i] Patrick Gathara, Covering Ukraine: A mean streak of racist exceptionalism, (Mar. 1, 2022)

[ii] Ivan Krastev, Putin’s aggressive autocracy reduces Russian soft power to ashes, (Jun. 16, 2022)