For some observers of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Mala Tokmachka has been mentioned so often in Russian military reports and pro-war Telegram channels lately that it has started to sound as though it were the key to victory in the entire war.
The long-running battle for this small Ukrainian village in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region — and Moscow’s repeated claims of progress and victory there — has now become an unexpected meme.
It all started when a video compilation of pro-Kremlin military commentator Boris Rozhin’s repeated comments over the past year that Russian forces were “continuing to press” near the village went viral on the Russian internet.
Even pro-Kremlin military bloggers have chimed in on the video.
“Here are the results of ‘Kyiv in three days’,” the pro-war Telegram channel Alex Parker Returns quipped.
