Ukraine
Definition
Ukraine refers to the target state in the Russian invasion that began on February 24, 2022, which serves as the empirical case study for examining how Russian citizens construe the war in value-laden terms. The invasion is described as the largest land war in Europe since 1945, resulting in substantial casualties and direct participation by hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens, with many more affected through family members. Russian state media framed the war as a defensive response to NATO expansion, a continuation of historical struggle with the collective West, and a rerun of the Great Patriotic War of 1941 to 1945. A survey of 973 Russian citizens conducted in August 2022 measured value-instantiating beliefs about the war, finding that state media consumption was associated with construing it as protective of conservation values such as security, conformity, and tradition.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
Related Terms
- collective action (1 shared article)
- authoritarianism (1 shared article)
- propaganda (1 shared article)
- Russia (1 shared article)
- values (1 shared article)
- value-instantiating beliefs (1 shared article)
Applications
Ukraine and Propaganda
The Russian invasion of Ukraine provided the concrete context within which state media propagated specific moral interpretations of the war, portraying it as a defensive necessity and a collective national effort. Consumption of state media, relative to independent media, was associated with seeing the war as more protective of conservation values and less beneficial for self-enhancement and stimulation values, supporting the view that propaganda structures the perceived moral significance of events rather than merely encouraging agreement with them.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
Ukraine and Value-instantiating Beliefs
Russian citizens varied systematically in the meanings they assigned to the invasion, as captured through value-instantiating beliefs measuring whether the war was seen as benefiting or threatening each of ten basic values. Latent profile analysis identified two construal profiles: one in which 31% of participants saw the war as enhancing conservation values, and another in which 69% saw it as undermining them. The former profile predicted more positive attitudes toward the war and stronger intentions to support it, beyond the effects of right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and national identity.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
Ukraine and War Support
Pro-war attitudes and behavioral intentions to support the war among Russian citizens were predicted by how individuals construed the invasion in terms of its consequences for their values. Construals aligned with conservation values, particularly tradition and conformity, were associated with stronger support intentions, while construals aligned with universalism, hedonism, and achievement-power were associated with less favorable views of the war.
Sources: Ponizovskiy et al. (2026)
