Framing Ukrainian Resistance: Identity, Democracy, and Civic Duty in Media Narratives of the Russo-Ukrainian War

Abstract

This study presents a corpus-based analysis of Ukrainian media discourse on Ukrainian resistance during the full-scale phase of the Russo-Ukrainian war, which began in February 2022. Using computational methods, it investigates the correlations between resistance-related lexemes and key semantic clusters. The study proposes two hypotheses: first, that representations of Ukrainian resistance are closely associated with the concepts of national identity, freedom, democratic values, and responsibility; and second, that the motivations for resistance may have evolved over the three years of the war. Method. A quantitative computer-assisted content analysis of lexical co-occurrences was conducted on long-form textual content from the English-language versions of two Ukrainian media outlets: The Kyiv Independent (specifically the “Human Stories” section) and Dzerkalo Tyzhnia (Mirror of the Week). Python libraries and modules were utilised for data processing. To extract content from the web archives of both media outlets, Python-based parsers were used to filter articles containing at least one predefined word from each of the following semantic clusters: “resistance” (6 words), “values” (5 words), “identity” (6 words), and “responsibility” (6 words). As a result, 8 separate datasets were formed. The total number of articles in the “Dzerkalo Tyzhnia” corpus is n = 1614, and in The Kyiv Independent – ​​n = 342. Statistical correlations of co-occurrences were calculated between resistance-related lexemes in each corpus and three predefined semantic clusters: Identity, Values, and Responsibilities. A comparative longitudinal analysis was performed to examine changes in these associations from 2022 to 2025. Results. The results demonstrate strong (up to ~1.0) and statistically significant (p < 0.05) positive correlations between the lexical group related to resistance and the three semantic clusters across both media outlets. High correlations with emotive and symbolic terms such as “spirit” and “nation” indicate that they were prominently used to represent resistance in the first stage of the war. Many correlations remained moderate (0.4–0.8) yet statistically significant over time, suggesting relative stability in the association between resistance and these core themes. However, law-related associations (e.g., law, duty, and responsibility) strengthened or became more consistently present in 2024 and 2025. Conclusions. The findings support both hypotheses put forward in this study. Firstly, Ukrainian resistance in media discourse is consistently associated with the semantic clusters of national identity, freedom, democratic values, and justice, as shown by strong and statistically significant correlations across both corpora. Secondly, although certain shifts in the motivational framing of resistance can be observed over the three years, particularly the increasing prominence of duty- and responsibility-related associations in 2024 and 2025, the overall discursive construction of resistance remains stable. These results suggest that the core semantic foundations of Ukrainian resistance persist over time, despite evolving contextual emphases.