Authors

Anastasiia Simashova¹;  ¹ Kamianets-Podilsky Ivan Ohiienko National University, Ukraine

Discussion

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has been accompanied in the European public discourse by a range of narratives, from those characterising the invasion as “unprovoked aggression by Russia that needs to be deterred” to those seeking to “justify the invasion on the grounds of historical legitimacy” (Koval et al. 2022). Considerable attention has been devoted to analysing the motives behind Putin's actions (e.g. Baker & Rak 2022, Kuzio 2022), while the resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of Russian military aggression that has come as a surprise to many Western observers (e.g. Benedetti 2022), still remains not sufficiently researched. The Ukrainian resistance can be attributed to several factors (Kuzio 2022). Despite the ongoing conflict, Ukrainians continue to espouse European ideals and perceive Europe as a “normative power” (Zarembo, 2024). Concurrently, an international “battle of narratives” is underway (Chaban & Zhabotynska 2024), whereby Ukrainian self-narratives are frequently inadequately represented and the West's desire to maintain ties with Russia is prioritised over the reasons for Ukrainians to resist against the Russian military aggression.
The purpose of the study is to investigate how the Ukrainian media framed the struggle of the Ukrainian people, the purpose and reasons for resistance, and what narratives they disseminated to an international audience regarding the Russo-Ukrainian War in the first two years of the full-scale invasion (the time frame encompassed February 2022 – February 2024).The material comprises articles, textual and visual content of the main Ukrainian news outlet English-language version (Ukrainska Pravda, The New Voice, Mirror of the Week (“Dzerkalo tuzhnia”), The Kyiv Independent). Applying the theory of news framing and narrative (Entman 1993, De Vreese 2005; Matthes & Kohring 2008, Tenenboim-Weinblatt et al. 2016 ) and using the method of descriptive content analysis, this study inventories the frames used by Ukrainian news outlet for providing news content about the reasons and purpose of the Ukrainian resistance.
The notion of a "European way" espoused by Ukraine has been identified by Ukrainian media as a key factor contributing to Russian aggression and a significant motivating force behind the Ukrainian resistance. The aspiration to become part of the EU and NATO is not solely a political objective of the Ukrainian government; it is also endorsed by various civil society actors and the general population. From the chosen theoretical perspective, this study provides evidence of a strong self-narrative of Ukrainian identity as a European citizen, accompanied by expectations of assistance from European countries in this “fight for Europe”.