Critical Discourse Analysis of President Zelensky's war-related speeches

Abstract

The Russian shameful invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has become one of the most discussed situations in the world. Despite the expectations, the Ukrainian people continue to resist and fight for their freedom. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, is believed to have played a decisive role at the beginning of the war, successfully convincing Ukrainians, and the international community to hinder the Russian imperialistic plans. Political Critical Discourse Analysis, being a relatively young framework, offers us tools that can be used to analyze and uncover the hidden persuasive force of Zelenskiy’s speeches. The presence of the numerous rhetorical devices, according to our theory, effectively employed by the President has helped stabilize the situation in the country in the first hours of the invasion by appealing to the patriotic sense of Ukrainians, which led to the prevention of further advance of Russian forces.