The Discursive Construction of Legitimation in Regional Conflict Discourses of Ukraine and Russia from the Perspective of Proximization

Abstract

The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022 has triggered intense discourse battles, in which the discursive construction of legitimacy has become a core battlefield for both sides. Drawing on Piotr Cap’s Proximization Theory and corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis, this study examined the speeches delivered by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the initial phase of the Russia-Ukraine military confrontation in 2022. The analysis revealed that both leaders systematically employed spatial, temporal, and axiological proximization strategies to legitimize their respective positions while delegitimizing the adversary. Putin predominantly utilized temporal proximization to frame Russia’s military operation as a preemptive self-defense against anticipated NATO expansion, whereas Zelensky favored spatial and axiological proximization to portray Ukraine as an innocent victim of unprovoked aggression. These divergent discursive patterns reflect contrasting ideological orientations and serve distinct legitimation functions: Putin sought to justify defensive military action, while Zelensky aimed to mobilize national resistance and secure international solidarity. This study contributed to the growing body of critical cognitive linguistic studies on conflict discourse by demonstrating how proximization operates as a powerful rhetorical mechanism for manufacturing consent in political communication.