The surprised-looking bear in Moudaki's cartoon loses a paw in a trap when it enters Ukraine, leaving his rider almost childishly perplexed. Especially in the West, a bear has often been used to refer to Russia's geographical size.

Theo Moudakis has Putin riding a bear in a cartoon for the Canadian Toronto Star newspaper.

Various cartoons and memes suggest that Ukraine might turn out to be more resilient than Russian President Vladimir Putin thought. They also ridicule, subtly or overtly, people in power, exposing truths those rulers may try to deny. Despite the heavy subject matter, they ideally make people smile, serving as a form of encouragement to not be defeated. The number of caricatures and memes skyrocket when times are tough, perhaps because they can be a way to deal with real-life horrors, such as the current war in Ukraine. Their creators are rarely known, not only because the memes are shared by the thousands on social media, but also because unauthorized use of the photo or video footage often violates copyright laws. Some memes are elaborate, others simply have an additional sentence or idiom. With the help of a simple image editing program, anyone can easily create a meme from photographic material. The 2010s also saw the emergence of memes - reworked images that exaggerate or ridicule the content originally depicted. Cartoons as a humorous form of social criticism have a long tradition.

World war toons commercial