Liberal Western Narratives on the Russian War Against Ukraine: Historical and Discursive Evolution and Political Consequences (2014–2025)

The purpose of the article is to identify the features of the historical-discursive evolution of Western narratives about the Russian war against Ukraine in 2014–2025 and to determine their influence on shaping international policy and the subjectivity of Ukraine. The methodological basis of the study is a combination of critical discourse analysis and securitisation theory, using a discursive-historical approach that allows consideration of linguistic practices within the broader historical context of the transformation of European security culture after the end of the Cold War. The empirical base comprises a corpus of about 540 texts (official statements, strategic documents, media, and analytical materials), covering the period 2014–2025. As a result of the study, four main phases of discursive evolution were identified: euphemisation and failed securitisation (2014–2015), conflict management and desecuritisation (2016–2021), full securitisation (2022) and discursive containment (2023–2025). It is proven that the transformations of linguistic practices directly correlate with changes in the political response of the West, from a limited response to large-scale support and further strategic restriction. The scientific novelty lies in conceptualising the phenomenon of “discursive containment” as a distinct mechanism of international politics, as well as in applying a discursive-historical approach to the analysis of modern international conflict in a long-term perspective. The practical significance of the study lies in the possibility of using its results to analyse transformations of international support for Ukraine and predict changes in political narratives. The results obtained open up prospects for further research in the direction of comparative analysis of discourses of various international actors and the application of quantitative methods for processing large text arrays.