Anti-Ukrainian narratives of Russia in the global information space

Abstract

The article examines the anti-Ukrainian narratives that russian propaganda produces and spreads to various target audiences, in particular, to the Ukrainian and russian populations and citizens of Western countries. It is shown that the goals of russian propaganda differ depending on the audience, in particular, for Ukraine's foreign partners, russian narratives justify the need to seize Crimea, the importance of russian patronage over Ukraine, and the legitimacy of the separation of part of the East. For the russian domestic consumer, the purpose of narratives is to shift attention from internal problems to external factors; to explain the need for russian support of the self-proclaimed "republics" as part of the "russian peace" and to show that putin's regime has no alternative. For the Ukrainian population, it is to show the inability of the authorities to solve the internal problems of the state, the fallacy of the chosen path of European integration, and the inability of the leadership of Ukraine to carry out reforms. The authors also showed how russian propaganda messages evolved in the russian information space, as well as how the information space of Ukraine changed after the start of the full-scale invasion. A conclusion is made about the informational resistance of Ukrainian society in relation to russian narratives after the start of a full-scale invasion.