Over three years into russia's aggression against Ukraine, the urgency is not just to reflect but to act. Having studied the media landscape in russia and Central Asia throughout this period, I can sadly conclude that russia is winning the information war.
Pro-kremlin media outlets and individuals flood the information space with narratives critical of Ukraine and the "Collective West."
Meanwhile, those who see through the propaganda and support Ukraine, struggle to find platforms for countering these narratives. Worse still, repressive legislation—often modeled after russian laws—can classify certain posts as extremist. All the while, the most absurd claims, such as the "satanic nature of the West" (although what we now observe coming from Washington DC might as well be labelled as such) or the conspiracy theories about Ukrainian biolabs, 'dirty bombs' and fakes about Butcha circulate freely.
Local state media outlets avoid the topic completely.
Below are the search results on Kyrgyzstan's state information agency Kabar when you type "Ukraine". One result of a generic news piece on the World Bank report on middle-income countries. Not the news of the day for Ukraine.
And here are the results for Uzbekistan's national news agency UZA. Again, not only scarcity of news but also complete ignorance of the elephant in the room.
Western media outlets in Central Asia are few in number and face pressures similar to those experienced by local critical voices.
Even when they do operate, their reporting is often dismissed as biased unless the audience is already inclined to agree with their stance. But even if these outlets were highly competitive and free to report, they would still be seen as speaking on behalf of Ukraine.
What is missing from this equation is Ukraine's voice—not a story told by russia, not a narrative filtered through Western outlets, but a direct and genuine message from Ukraine itself.
What is the solution? Ukrainian media must expand its reach into Central Asia without delay. This means delivering news in the region's local languages and Russian. Additionally, news coverage should be complemented with entertainment programming to foster cultural connections between the people of Central Asia and Ukraine.
Given that many regional regimes have taken an allegedly neutral—yet effectively pro-russian—stance in this war, it is unlikely that they will allow Ukrainian broadcasts on cable networks. If they did, a phone call from 32/34 Smolenskaya-Sennaya would follow immediately. Meanwhile, they prefer paying for russian propaganda. Therefore, focus must shift to the digital domain. Here, algorithms can be leveraged to amplify Ukraine-related content created by Ukrainians, ensuring their voices reach broader audiences despite structural barriers.
One thing is clear—Ukraine's voice has been muted in Central Asia. The deadline to fix this issue was yesterday, as they say.