The War in Ukraine

Magdalena Musiał-Karg, Natasza Lubik-Reczek

Undeniably, the Russian attack on Ukraine has greatly united not only Ukrainians in their resistance against the invaders, but also the public in most countries of the world, governments, and international organizations in their protest against the attack. From the first day of the Russian invasion, the world has been shocked as people watched cities and towns across Ukraine being razed to the ground by the fighting. In this difficult situation, it turned out that the Ukrainian people have extraordinary fighting power and determination to defend their land. Moreover, under the leadership of President Zelensky, their morale and determination has been growing.

Without any doubt, the Russian aggression has also changed the public’s attitude toward Ukraine’s western immediate neighbours and partners. Among the countries considered most friendly by the Ukrainian public are those that have taken in refugees and are providing military and humanitarian aid – Poland, the US, the UK, and Lithuania top the list. It is worth mentioning that Poland is also indicated as the country that helped Ukraine the most in response to the Russian attack. This has translated into the largest change in sympathy for that nation.

It is important to remember that Ukraine and Russia have a history of uneasy coexistence, geopolitical cohabitation, and historical and cultural rivalry. For the following years after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine was politically divided in an increasingly polarized environment into a pro-Western and pro-Russian geopolitical orientation. The decisive victory of pro-Western political forces in 2014, along with the Euro-Maidan protests and Ukraine’s subsequent attempt to move closer to the EU, as well as the overall geopolitical situation of the period, influenced Russia’s decision to increase its aggression and revisionism towards to preserve its national interest.

The book is a collection of studies and images of the war in Ukraine from the perspective of female researchers analyzing various aspects of political relations, information processes, communication, and public engagement, in the context of Russian aggression and war in Ukraine. The considerations addressed in the volume focus on the first phase of the war in Ukraine and its consequences in different contexts. The authors seek to answer questions such as what actions Moscow took to blame Ukraine, the US and NATO for the invasion and to disinform the Russians and the global community on this issue, or to examine and explain the position of other states towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A very important issue addressed in the volume is sexual violence in war time and the role and image of women in armed conflict. Nevertheless, an essential concern of the authors was to examine the role of aid provided by some nations and Ukrainian national minorities in some countries, as such activities were offered by many formal and informal organizations and many governments around the world (e.g., the European Union and Ukraine’s neighbouring countries). Some chapters also analysed public opinions on various war contexts. This approach to the issue under study provided a picture of the various dimensions of the war in Ukraine, while complementing previous images of the armed conflict in Ukraine.

The book is structured into ten chapters.

In the first chapter, Magdalena Musiał-Karg and Agnieszka Łukasik-Turecka point out that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a wave of disinformation has been unleashed in the press, television, and social media, and that alongside the armed conflict there is also an information war that is seriously affecting societies around the world. The manipulated information blaming Ukraine, the USA and NATO for the aggression cause panic, create artificial divisions in the society, and negatively affect citizens who have fled from their war-torn Ukraine. The main aim of the first chapter is to analyse the fake media content related to the war in Ukraine and its impact on the social and political space.

The second chapter – by Natalia Kusa is an attempt to analyse the results of Russian public opinion polls on the perception of the enemy category in relation to states and international organizations. According to the author – Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 changed everything, including the perception of the enemy category by the Russians.

The next chapter is related to Canada’s stance towards the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Elżbieta Lesiewicz starts her discussion with the statement that since the Canada’s recognition of Ukraine’s independence in 1991 – the two countries have maintained a friendly bilateral relation. The author’s reflections focus on Canada’s sanctions imposed on Russia and decisions and actions to help Ukraine and Ukrainian immigrants during the crisis. It should be recalled in this context that Canada’s position and actions in connection with Russia’s attack on Ukraine reflect the support that the Ukrainian state and authorities have received from many countries in Europe and around the world.

The research in the next chapter addresses issues related to the challenges of reducing sexual violence. Alexandra Gasztold’s analysis focuses on the status of women in the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict. The author answers the question of whether femininity and masculinity are correlated with the cruelty of war and the redistribution of militarism. The author emphasizes that conflict-related sexual violence has origins in patriarchal societies and is strongly supported by culture, religion, nationalism, abuse of power and imperial ambitions.

The following chapter provides a continuation of the theme of gender and its image in armed conflations. Alina Balczyńska-Kosman and Dominika Narożna match the topic of media and women in their chapter. The authors emphasize that women were at the centre of the dramatic events in Ukraine. Moreover, media representations of Ukrainian women were not limited to showing their suffering and portraying them as victims, but, according to media reports, images of Ukrainian women were also portrayed as brave people, often in uniform and fully armed, as fighting shoulder to shoulder with men. Basing on the analysis of certain magazines in Poland they examined the media images of Ukrainian women during the war.

Joanna Rak, Kamila Rezmer-Płotka, and Joanna Marszałek-Kawa lead their considerations on the context of attitudes towards refugees from Ukraine by the Polish State Media. The authors emphasize that from 2015 to 2019, the Polish partisan media built the right-wing Law and Justice party’s (PiS) image as the protector who safeguarded Poland from the external threat embodied by refugees. In 2022, the refugees from Ukraine were not treated as enemies. Instead of contra-acculturative attitudes, journalists drew upon vitalism. The study in the chapter explains how and why Polish attitudes differed during the two great waves of migration, which are issues tackled by the world media and still under-researched.

Alina Kaszkur and Magdalena Mateja – are concentrating on the Visegrad countries leaders’ attitudes towards the war in Ukraine. Their analysis of the discourse and visual communication on the leaders’ fan pages revealed the differences in attitudes, beliefs, and emotions in the situation of an international crisis. Authors conclude that while the Hungarian prime minister cared mainly about his country’s security, the other leaders expressed beliefs and emotions that proved their unequivocal support for Ukraine and the actions of its president. They also emphasize that the divergent views of V4 leaders on the critical issue of international politics give rise to an inquiry about the group’s purpose and future.

The chapter by Agnieszka Bejma and Beata Pająk-Patkowska is related thematically to the former one. The authors – in a broader perspective – examine the institutional forms of aid provided to refugees in the first weeks after the outbreak of war. They also identify the challenges and barriers faced by both the European Union and Poland in this regard.

Dorota Kowalewska in her chapter starts her considerations with a statement that the war in Ukraine has changed the live of the Ukrainian minority in Poland. The Author points out that within a month from the start of the war, the focus on Ukrainian language, culture, and tradition changed to humanitarian aid, support for soldiers, and help to refugees. Referring to Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam’s theory of fields, she shows changes in the organization of the Association of Ukrainians in Poland. The analysis is based on results of own research on Ukrainian minority leaders active in Polish cities (Szczecin, Koszalin, Gdańsk, Poznań, Warsaw, Krakow, and Przemyśl). The conclusions show that the widening of the organizational field, has involved a change of scale and territory, operation mode and adjustment of human and technical resources to new goals, key competences among leaders, and partners within cooperation networks.

The chapters included in the book, authored by researchers representing various universities in Poland, confirm that interest in the issues of the war in Ukraine (its consequences, the status of Ukraine, issues related to the perception of Ukraine and its allies, as well as the attitudes of societies towards the invaded state) is gaining momentum and will probably be the subject of many more publications issued in the near future.

This book is intended as a contribution to further research in this area. This extremely dynamic international situation and related processes should provide interesting research data, and the presented book should inspire their scientific exploration.