Narrative aspects of strategic communication of President Zelenskyi on Twitter social network during the Russo-Ukrainian war

This study fills gap in the research on the narrative aspects of Ukrainian strategic communication during the last 3 years of the Russo-Ukrainian war. The subject of the study is emotional means of persuasion in the strategic communication of the President of Ukraine V. Zelenskyi, on Twitter from a narrative theory standpoint. The aim of the study is to reveal the place and role of emotional and rhetorical means of persuasion in the narratives disseminated by President Zelenskyi on Twitter. Methodologically, a content analysis of 58 emotional messages of the President of Ukraine on Twitter for the period December 1–31, 2024 was carried out and the messages were categorized into 12 topics. Within narrative and discourse-analytical research paradigms, a model for constructing a melodramatic narrative based on certain symbolic images and emotional codes resonating with Western audiences has been proposed. It was found that President Zelenskyi uses a wide repertoire of emotional means of persuasion to attract international heterogeneous audiences on Twitter. A narrative that unites and harmonizes all emotional themes is a melodramatic story with universal symbolic images: an unjustly offended victim (Ukraine), a villain guilty of the victim’s suffering (Russia), and an idealized successful hero (Ukraine and its international partners). The narrative provokes appropriate emotional reactions in the audience — sympathy, identification, and desire to help Ukraine, anger and hatred towards the Russian Federation, and respect and admiration for the courage of Ukraine and its partners. A wide range of topics within the narrative, from the abduction of Ukrainian children to the environmental dangers, as well as a familiar structure of the plot, allows President Zelenskyi to emotionally attract the most heterogeneous audiences that are not directly invested in the Russo-Ukrainian war.