The Ukrainian Defense Ministry made a social media post on Saturday depicting Britain’s reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, aiming a shoulder-fired NLAW anti-tank missile launcher. The image is the latest in a line of controversial social media posts by the government in Kiev.
In the drawing, the Queen is depicted aiming one of the British-made missile launchers over one shoulder, with the Ukrainian coat of arms emblazoned on her other arm. “God bless the Queen, Ukraine and the whole world,” reads a caption above the image.
Britain has donated thousands of single-use NLAW missile launchers to Ukraine, and the weapons have been immortalized in British and Ukrainian propaganda. Mock-religious icons depict ‘Saint NLAW’ holding the missile launchers, and British politicians have claimed that Ukrainian soldiers shout “God save the Queen” as they fire the weapons.
The efficacy of the NLAWs, and of American-supplied Javelins and Stingers, has been hotly debated. Ukraine regularly claims to have destroyed more Russian vehicles than Moscow records as lost, and in the months since Britain first sent more than 4,000 NLAWs, Kiev has petitioned the West for heavier weapons and vehicles as Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine continued.
The Defense Ministry’s post was cheered on Twitter by pro-Ukrainian users, but slated by others. Some condemned the ministry for supporting a foreign monarch, while others simply described the post as “cringe.”