Changes of the language identity of Ukrainians at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in Ukraine (based on the materials from social networks and online publications of the end of February – beginning of April 2022)
Authors: Renchka Inna 
Published: February 2024

Background. The military aggression of Russia against Ukraine affected the mass consciousness and made Ukrainians to review and reconsider the common values system. The language situation in the country as well as the language identity of the population have significantly changed. As for the latter, its study is an extremely topical issue.Contribution to the research field. Previous research of the language identity concept did not cover all its aspects, both theoretical and practical. In particular, the language issue, its state and quality of the language identity in Ukraine in the war conditions require a deep and comprehensive investigation. In this study, we assume that the language self-identification processes at the beginning of the war, provoked by the shock of the full-scale invasion, are a projection of further linguistic, cultural and value-based development of Ukrainian society.Purpose. To unveil the peculiarities of the language identity in the Ukrainian realities and to characterise the dynamics of the language self-identification of Ukrainians during the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.Methods. The main research methods are discourse analysis and content analysis as well as description of factual material such as the texts from the social networks “Facebook”, “Telegram”, “Instagram” and online publications for the selected period which are testifying changes in the Ukrainians’ language identity. The comparative method and the context analysis methods are also used.Results. The language situation in Ukraine several years before the fullscale Russia’s invasion was unstable. There was a significant difference between the attitude to the Ukrainian language and choice of the communication language in various situations. A confrontation between Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking identities existed. Study of the discourse of social networks and online publications during the first weeks of the Russian invasion in Ukraine has revealed significant changes in the language identity of Ukrainians. Since the first days of the war, the position of the Ukrainian language was strengthened because of the deliberate transition of many people (both famous and regular ones) to it. At that time, the language received а unifying, “friend or foe” marker, self-preservation and resistance to the enemy functionalities. Numerous social networks posts contained argumentation concerning the importance of the mother language, appeals to support it as well as arguments, including historical facts, explaining why one should start speaking Ukrainian language. Genocide of Ukrainians on the occupied territories made them more principled regarding the language and national culture, intensified de-Russification processes and rejection of Russian cultural products.Discussion. The study revealed the unity of the Ukrainian society around protection of the Ukrainian language and culture. The changes in the language identity found at the beginning of the war set the directions of the linguistic, cultural and value-based development of Ukrainian society, in particular regarding decolonization and de-Russification in various spheres. We see the prospects for further research in the study of the changes in the value-based attitude of Ukrainians to their language and the issue of choosing Ukrainian language in various communication situations in the conditions of the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war using quantitative and qualitative methods.