Portrayals of Ukraine on Instagram: The Perils of a "Meakness" Frame

Since the inception of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, I have paid careful attention to the images posted on Instagram by some well-known Ukrainian public figures who are not politicians. In the first few weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, most of those images were visual metaphors representing a country at peace, which poses no threat to anybody. The dominant colors of these metaphors are yellow and blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, metaphorically used to refer to the blue and pristine Ukrainian skies and to the golden vast wheat fields that cover much of the country. They were clearly meant as an answer to the claim by the Russian propaganda that invading Ukraine was a defensive move. However, something is at odds with the idea of Ukraine these images want to convey. As a matter of fact, the figurative peace frames used as a source domain to describe Ukraine may end up reshaping the message they want to deliver in a misleading way. More specifically, they reinforce and/or reactivate the stereotypes about Ukraine that have been used in pre-Soviet descriptions of the country and its people in the travel writings of both Western and Eastern European travelers. Starting from these premises and drawing from conceptual metaphor theory as well as post-colonial theory and studies, I analyze a wide selection of the above-mentioned visual metaphors with the purpose of highlighting their potential as a reframing tool that can dangerously legitimize Ukraine has a land of conquest.