Over the past day, the enemy has been massively shelling settlements in Kharkiv, Chuhuiv, Kupyansk and Izium districts with artillery, mortars and aircraft,” Oleh Syniehubov, head of Kharkiv regional military administration, said on Telegram. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. if you are not ukrainian currently searching for nearest shelter, how can you joke about ww3 as “coping mechanism”? what are you coping with? i woke up to the sounds of explosions in my city today, is it funny to you?— ⁷ (@futurmrsmin) February 24, 2022

In today’s Ukraine, belittling Russia in a similar vein helps lift spirits amid the relentless destruction. As the war became the new normal, Ukrainians turned to the dark humour honed during the Nazi Holocaust and Soviet-era brutality, which together killed millions of Ukrainians. I’m already seeing the scolding tweets about WWIII jokes. We may be irony-poisoned on here, but you can’t stop gallows humor when it’s something this huge and bleak and we’re all individually powerless. It’s a sign we’re still human.— AICN Podcast Day! (@LazlosGhost) February 24, 2022 During a post-show interview, both comedians said they hoped the war ends before the fall, for purely careerist reasons. They’ve got some corporate gigs lined up in other countries and as long as hostilities rage, men are barred from leaving the country. The agreement would forbid them from criticising official policy, discrediting Soviet military history or contravening traditional family values. When, in 2014, NATO published satellite images of invading Russian tanks in Crimea, Russian embassies tweeted a picture of toy tanks, dismissing them as the “most convincing evidence” that NATO could come up with.

Sardonic salvos

At least two people were killed in northeastern Kharkiv, according to regional leaders. Two others were wounded, including a 60-year-old man and 72-year-old woman. First, advertising dollars go up and down with the economy. We often only know a few months out what our advertising revenue will be, which makes it hard to plan ahead. Look for the 10 percent who didn’t want to join the European Union,” deadpanned Dmytrovych. “Who are these people?” There is definitely an element of privilege and safety behind the impulse to meme instead of staying glued to the news. Part of the meme response is about “not realizing what war really is and what it means,” Alhabash said. “So, dealing with it in a laissez-faire kind of way.” Another particularly barbed tweet sported a Captcha mosaic of the burned-out planes with instructions to “Prove that you’re not a robot.”

Dziunko is onstage with two other comedians and a well-known singer. All are seated and holding microphones, gamely trying to find humor in a place and at a moment when the tragic is trouncing the funny by a spectacular margin. Putin: There's a lot less Ukrainian soldiers surrendering than I expected. Putin's stooge: It's fewer, Mr. President. The ensuing years gave the country ample opportunity to perfect its barbs against Russia, and Kuleba has brought that skill to his current portfolio as foreign minister.Scrolling through stories is even more mind-numbing, in one story an Indian couple is dancing and celebrating their wedding, and in the next story, someone has shared a video of a couple being separated in Ukraine. In the widely circulated video, the mother is taking the daughter along with her while the father bids teary goodbye to his young crying daughter. And then in just the next story, an influencer shares a reel dancing to the song “life goes on and on and on” All of the comedians I watched that night, and all those I’ve spoken with since the invasion, told me about the cathartic effect of comedy, of laughter, in such depressing times. “A stand-up night in a basement is a good way to get people to ignore air-raid sirens, come to a shelter, and spend a couple hours in a safe space,” Zagaikevich told me. “A good joke is the best way to reduce stress and fuel your fighting spirit. There’s no better way to cope with all the horror of our day-to-day news.”

Keep reading list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Ukraine says wife of military spy chief was poisoned list 2 of 4 Baltic foreign ministers pull out of OSCE summit over Russia invite list 3 of 4 NATO chief urges allies to ‘stay the course’ in supporting Ukraine list 4 of 4 Ukraine storm death toll rises to 10, thousands rescued in the south end of list The shows double as fund-raisers for Ukraine’s war effort. Every performance is live-streamed on YouTube and viewers can send donations online. Throughout the evening, a host who’s offstage shares details of some of the larger donations, along with messages for the performers. On this Saturday night, one donor needled the hosts for the scarcity of jokes. We've been reporting this week on extreme weather in Ukraine - and it appears to be slowing down Russia's offensive operations.The irony, satire and outright cynicism help Ukrainians cope with stress, loss, uncertainty and violence around them. Historically, our lives have been difficult, so we constantly make jokes to stay sane,” Sofiya Maksymiv tells Al Jazeera. The communications coordinator at the online publication UkraineWorld has written about Ukrainian wartime jesting. “It’s our national trait; we choose to see things through a comic lens. That makes it easier to live through drastic situations.” Unless they want an unpleasantly hot summer break, we advise our valued russian guests not to visit Ukrainian Crimea. Because no amount of sunscreen will protect them from the hazardous effects of smoking in unauthorised areas.