Use social media to counter disinformation, Zelensky urges

In a live-streamed address, Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky urged Australian students to use social media to counter Russian disinformation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a recent press conference in Kyiv.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Australian university students and young people to use social media to resist disinformation spread by Russia.

In a live-streamed address hosted by the Australian National University, the president shared his experience navigating the atrocities of war and urged the nation to continue backing Ukraine’s cause.

“War is not over and today we, as never before, need your support, need support of all the civilised countries, along with whom we will most surely stop and conquer evil,” he told the crowd.

During a live Q&A session led by former Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, President Zelensky answered questions from students from 21 universities across Australia.

ANU international security studies student Bridget Shelley asked the Ukrainian president what was the hardest thing to accept as a leader fighting a war.

“On one side, our people who are capable of such heroism, who went out on the street and started to stop the military equipment tanks with bare hands,” he answered.

“And the next part of humanity, another side, the people who came to our land.

“I never thought that people are capable of those things.”

Carolyn, a student from the University of New South Wales, asked how students in Australia can assist with alleviating the human cost of the war to Ukraine.

“We need to have support with concrete actions,” President Zelensky said.

“Russia spends billions on their propaganda machine instead of raising social standards, they spend it all on informational weapons.

“Students and youth, by using the social networks you have, you have an opportunity to show the truth about Ukraine.”

A student from Swinburne University in Melbourne asked the president how he viewed China’s claim to be neutral towards the war, and whether he thought it would be possible to enlist China’s support.

President Zelensky said he would like China to join global unified opposition against Russia’s actions.

“As for now, China is balancing and indeed has neutrality and I will be honest, this neutrality is better than China joining Russia.”

Following the session, the president received a standing ovation from the sold-out audience.

Sitting in the front row was Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, who recently began negotiations with the federal government to allow Ukrainian students to live and study in Australia.

“Australia has some of the best universities in the world, and we could definitely take advantage of that,” he told SBS last week.

The move follows countries such as the UK and Scotland which have introduced reduced university fees for Ukrainian students.