Authors

Discussion

This paper presents a study of the visual culture developed around the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014-present) as well as its transformations during the limited War in Donbas and into the 2022 Russian Invasion. Using the framework developed by Sontag (2003; 2004) and based on previous research of visuality in other conflicts, from Iraq War to War in Yemen (cf. Oruc 2020; Hellman 2016; Maltby & Thornham 2016; Andén-Papadopoulos 2008; Carruthers 2008; Apel 2005; Feldman 2005; Mirzoeff 2006; Tétreault 2006), I focus on the different visual (or scopic) regimes that have been established in the frontline media ecology, characterised by saturation with smartphones, tablets, GoPro cameras, and other videorecording devices. These regimes are strikingly different both from their Western counterparts and from conflicts in the Middle East or Africa. The study's results point out to new forms of media management in a war situation that uses mobile technology to mimic the style of the authentic voice and experience so as to supplant it with a marketable representation of “the soldiering self” (Chouliaraki 2016) and may be seen as an extension of “arrested war” (Hoskins O’Loughlin 2015).