Russia has spent more than a year and hundreds of lives fighting to capture one small village in Ukraine. So why can’t it take Mala Tokmachka?
A video compilation of statements by pro-Kremlin pundit Boris Rozhin about the Russian military’s endless assault on the village of Mala Tokmachka in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region surfaced in mid-April and quickly became the most popular military meme so far in 2026. The village’s name had already appeared regularly in dispatches from Russian milbloggers as “nearly cleared” — week after week, month after month. As the meme evolved, it took on a range of meanings, becoming a commentary on the lies of Russian military officials and their blogger allies, and a symbol of the senselessness of a war in which hundreds of lives have been spent fighting over a single small village. The name has also been used as shorthand for the gap between the Russian military’s ambitions and its capabilities (“We’ll take Tokmachka — then we march on Europe”). Ukrainian media outlets and bloggers, meanwhile, have turned Mala Tokmachka into a symbol of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ resilience. By their count, the battle has lasted more than 1,500 days, ostensibly longer than any successful defense in world history. Meduza examines how Mala Tokmachka became so significant to both Moscow and Kyiv.