russia and ukraine are fighting wars on two fronts one on the battlefield and the other in media two realities are simultaneously unfolding and both paint a very different picture the information war is being won handsdown by ukraine led by its charismatic president while the war on the ground tells a grimmer story what is interesting is the virtual narrative is not merely derived from the ground reality but has a life of its own traditionally the role of news was to report on what was happening events took precedence and the narrative around them drew their substance from the goingson in the real world while that continues to be true in many ways the reportage we see is after all a direct consequence of russias actions but there is much more to it than that today the media and the virtual world are not merely accounts of the invasion but are wars in their own right the two accounts draw from different sources and privilege completely different events thereby creating storylines that do not converge significantlythere is no question who has the worlds sympathy and support today the stories around ukraine are uplifting and carry with them an unmistakable ring of admiration and concern the image of volodymyr zelenskyy today is that of a courageous statesman who is inspiring his country to stand firm against an invasion by a much stronger enemy from his beginnings as an actor and a comedian he has travelled quite some distance what we have is the picture of a heroic man an outsider to politics bringing a new flavour to the idea of political leadership a skilled communicator adept in the ways of social media besides being young and photogenic all ingredients that have combined to help build a new brand of statesmanshipthen there are the stories of the woman who knocked out a drone with a jar of cucumbers the old woman who handed over sunflower seeds to a russian soldier so that when he died at least something useful bloomed in the ukrainian soil the statement by zelenskyy when the us offered him safe passage out of the country about needing ammunition and not a ride these are but a few of the sidelights of the war that have gone viral most of these are utterly inconsequential in the overall scheme of things but in the virtual sphere they are helping construct a powerful narrative for ukraineon the other side is russia which has never won any image wars in most of its recent history led by putin nobodys idea of the worlds teddy bear assaulting a tiny democratic neighbour by invoking contentious arguments that are rooted in an imagined past its principal concern that of preventing ukraine from joining nato is understandable but indefensible no sovereign country can be prevented from choosing sides however unpalatable it might be geopolitically for another nation whatever little support it has globally comes from countries with