When the Ukrainian social media influencer Anna Tsukur started building her business as a fitness guru several years ago, she made choices to maximize her appeal — focus on women, shoot in inspiring locations like Bali and, above all, speak in Russian.
After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, she decided that as an influencer, her first task should be to try to influence people about the war, appealing to her Russian followers to protest their country’s actions.
The result: a stream of insults from Russians insisting Ukraine was at fault.
Then she decided to ignore her own business model.
“I felt from my heart,” she said, “that it was the right thing to do to show that I support my people, Ukraine.”