The Representation of Ukraine in Belarusian State News in the Context of War: An Analysis of Lexical and Semantic Patterns in BelTA Articles (November 2024 – October 2025)

This article examines the representation of Ukraine in Belarusian state news in the context of Russia’s war against Ukraine, based on publications by the BelTA news agency from November 2024 to October 2025. Drawing on a corpus of more than 5,500 news items devoted to bilateral relations between Belarus and Ukraine, the study analyzes stable lexical patterns that emerge in the process of constructing the image of Ukraine, the West, and the Belarusian authorities themselves. The paper outlines the methodology of automated and manual text analysis, identifies the main groups of lexical patterns, and demonstrates how their repetition shapes key narratives: the delegitimization of the Ukrainian government, the opposition between “the people” and political elites, the sacralization of time, the construction of an external enemy, and the secondary legitimization of power in Belarus.

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