Russian&#x2F;rebel social media also played a role in all this, in a way that&#x27;s not mentioned in this article.<p>There are some official and close-to-official social media accounts that are used by the Russian rebels to announce progress (Twitter, Facebook, VK) usually straight from the mouths of commanders and higher ups.<p>When MH-17 was downed they boasted about shooting down a Ukrainian plane only to find themselves quickly deleting all mention of it several hours later.<p>Those same accounts also boasted about acquiring a Buk missile launcher weeks earlier, but those status updates were also deleted.