When Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine on 24 February, Vitaliy Kim was still in bed sound asleep.
“I was dreaming something, but can’t remember what, and when I woke up, everybody was panicking,” said Kim, 41, governor of the industrial region of Mykolaiv. “It was frightening. People were asking me what to do now.”
A few frantic hours later, after a Russian missile struck the local airport about nine miles from his office, Kim, who had been a successful developer, was already dressed in military clothes and ready to go to war.
From that moment on, the region of Mykolaiv would be hit by daily missile strikes. But while Moscow’s troops advanced towards its cities, with each blast Kim grew increasingly popular, one joke at a time.
His mockery of Russian forces released in his daily video messages on Telegram and on his social channels, even when the enemy was dangerously close to the city, went viral and turned into memes. His face, printed on T-shirts, quickly became a symbol of the country’s resistance against the world’s largest nation.
“Somehow, jokes are strategic,” he said in an interview with the Observer. “They’re useful to civilians and military personnel. With this mockery, I’m trying to show that the Russian army is made of common people who make mistakes.”
From the first day, Mykolaiv, in the southern half of Ukraine, became a primary target for the Russians to reach their goal to annex the country’s Black Sea coast. In March, Moscow had practically encircled the city and its port on the Buh River. Its forces had seized Mykolaiv’s airport and were advancing from the north-east, with citizens piling up tyres and making molotov cocktails in preparation for street fighting.
One day, while Russian artillery was pounding the city with rockets and old Soviet missiles, Kim posted a photo on his Telegram channel showing the component from an antiquated Krug anti-aircraft missile system, designed in 1957, which had been found by rescue workers.
Below the image, he added: “I’m no weapons expert, but I feel like they’ll start throwing balalaikas at us soon,” referring to a typical Russian stringed musical instrument. And just when it seemed the city was falling into Russian hands, Kim, to instil calm among the population, published a photo of himself in his office with his feet on a desk wearing gaudy socks. The image went viral immediately, with a doctored version of Kim sitting with his feet on Putin’s imposingly long table.
Kim’s ability to joke in the face of horror and fear has contributed to reassuring Ukrainians and alleviating their desperation. In an odd twist, his way of dealing with such trauma can be translated with a phrase attributed to the Russian revolutionary anarchist Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin: “A laugh will bury you all.”
“It wasn’t hard to reunite Ukrainians when the war started. They did it in one day”, said Kim, whose father was a basketball coach of Korean ancestry. “It was that easy. Because to their eyes, Russia is not just an army, it’s a true evil that is destroying everything in its path. They rape, kill and kidnap people. It was that easy to reunite in order to fight them back. Throughout our history, we have been fighting for our independence. The fight for freedom is in our DNA now.”
Indeed, Mykolaiv residents managed to fight the Russians, becoming one of the most courageous strongholds on the southern front despite the fact that some believe it was inhabited by numerous pro-Russians.
“That’s not true,” Kim replied. “There couldn’t be any pro-Russians. Who would support a country that’s not a democracy? What was here were many pro-Soviet Union types.”
Mykolaiv has paid a heavy price for five months of war and resistance. Many of its citizens have been killed, and about 40% of its population has fled, leaving the city a virtual ghost town.The few people on the streets are mainly elderly. For more than a month there was no water after a pipeline had been destroyed. A humanitarian aid point has been set up in a crumbling 200-year-old theatre and concert hall, which provides clothes, shoes and medicines.
Missiles shake the city on a daily basis. As the Observer talked to Kim, two Russian cruise missiles cut through the sky. “Welcome to Mykolaiv,” said a smiling soldier. “The Russians are actually late today,” he added.
After the Russians captured the Luhansk region, which along with Donetsk makes up the eastern Donbas, local authorities in Mykolaiv are bracing for an intensification of attacks.
“The battle over the south of Ukraine is still ahead of us and this is inevitable,” said Roman Kostenko, a member of Ukraine’s parliament and a special forces commander, who on day one of the war swapped his suit and tie for a uniform and hurried to Mykolaiv’s frontline. Mykolaiv, which borders the vital Black Sea port of Odesa, is regarded by Moscow as a strategic target to reach its goal to annex Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, making Ukraine a landlocked country.
“The Kremlin’s primary target was to take over the south and the east, and to return Ukraine into its sphere of influence,” said Kostenko. “But we didn’t let them, and that’s why they had to alter their plans and concentrate their major force in the east. Their target is to take our sea away from us. They announced that these are their ‘indigenous territories’. They will try to reach the Transnistria border because Russia created many of those quasi-republics such as DNR, LNR, Abkhazia, South Osetia and Transnistria. They are trying to connect them.
“But the thing is, this cruel war is not even about a temporary loss of territories. It’s about our people being killed, women, children. Ask Vitaliy Kim – he will show you what Russia did to the government building.”
On 29 March, a Russian cruise missile struck Mykolaiv’s regional administration centre, leaving dozens trapped under debris: 38 people died in the attack. This is where Kim meets reporters for interviews, alongside the damaged building. The missile left a gaping hole and sent office furniture flying metres away.The interior walls and hundreds of documents are still bloodstained.
Russian forces waited until people arrived for work in the morning before targeting the site. Kim was supposed to be there, too, but that morning had overslept.
Kim has practised taekwondo for much of his life. “Taekwondo is about discipline and achieving your goals,” he said. “You can apply this system in everyday life and in war too.”
Before being suspended as honorary president of the International Judo Federation, Putin – a judo black belt – co-authored a book titled Judo: History, Theory, Practice.
Many Ukrainians and Kim’s fans wonder who would prevail in a martial arts battle between the two. “I never thought about this,” said Kim smiling.
Then, pointing his finger at the skeleton of the government building destroyed by the Russian troops, he added: “But looking at what he did to us, I wouldn’t fight him in a ring. I would just take a gun and shoot him.”
