(Zero Hedge)—Immense controversy and backlash has been unleashed in Ukraine after the country’s defense ministry decided to make a fresh recruitment video on TikTok, bizarrely using the ‘lure’ of McDonald’s. The clip appeared this week on the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s official channel.
Desperately seeking to gain more young recruits into the army’s depleting ranks, also at a moment that disturbing videos showing conscription officers yanking Ukrainian men off the streets and shoving them into vans are going viral, the new video clip informs Ukrainians how many cheeseburgers they can afford at McDonald’s by joining the fight against Russia.
A man in civilian clothes walks out of a local McDonald’s and poses, “How many cheeseburgers can be bought for 1 million hryvnas ($24,000)?” The man then says that 15,625 burgers can be bought for that amount, and that any person between the ages of 18-24 who signs up for military service can get it. Currently the military is offering “special contracts” for new volunteers, promising the equivalent of $24,000 for a year’s service, with $5,400 paid up front. One commenter on X has quipped, “Imagine getting yourself shot in the trenches for a happy meal.” Watch the controversial and strange video below, with translation and captions:
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense is now trying to lure 18-24-year-olds with McDonald’s on TikTok.
Imagine getting yourself shot in the trenches for a happy meal…..
pic.twitter.com/EPI9vf4ksK
— Richard (@ricwe123) March 21, 2025
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
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Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
