This study aimed to highlight the practice of rhetoric and semiotics used in crisis communication during the Russian-Ukrainian war. On the 24th of February 2022, Russia began its invasion of Ukraine which resulted in the Ukrainian president, Zelensky, giving numerous speeches. In light of Zelensky's background as an actor, several discussions arose concerning his execution of delivery. The analyzed material in this study consisted of three speeches that Zelensky performed regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war, and these were collected from Youtube where the speeches were uploaded. The aim of this study was to investigate how Zelensky utilized rhetorical and semiotic tools in his communication. The investigation was carried out by qualitative content analysis, rhetorical analysis, and semiotic analysis, and the study was based on the theories of semiotics, rhetoric, and crisis communication. These literary tools and vocal speeches helped to answer the research question.The research showed that Zelensky was skilled in delivering his speeches in many ways. From a semiotic perspective, important elements, such as his looks and dress wear, as well as objects shown in the background, were analyzed during his speeches. This resulted in advantages such as a strengthened message and worldwide acceptance. Zelensky used influential rhetoric and distinct crisis communication to establish arguments and messages that awakened emotions in the audience to promote action.

This thesis explores the prerequisites for peace in Ukraine from a typology of the conflict’s constituent elements. The material examined consist of accounts from open sources and official statements from the warring parties. The thesis concludes that the high intensity combat between two state parties and the ostensible lack of veto-players warrants a conflict with a shorter duration and relatively good prerequisites for solution. Underpinning territorial aspects and general scale of conflict together with lingering features of Russian strategic culture points to a longer and more intractable conflict. The western support for Ukraine contributes both to scale and intensity, but also induces a risk for horizontal escalation.

This paper explores the linguistic construction of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, in Swedish newspapers in 2019 and 2022. Using the framework of Critical Discourse Studies along with Cognitive Linguistics the aim of the study is to gain an understanding of what constructs a heroism discourse surrounding Zelensky. Utilizing the Discourse-Historical Approach as the main method allows for a certain qualitative analysis of news texts which illuminate discursive strategies and possible conceptual metaphors. Findings suggest there has been a shift in the discourse concerning Zelensky, and that he in march 2022 is part of a heroism discourse in which he symbolizes change. / Den här uppsatsen har som syfte att utforska hur Ukrainas president Volodymyr Zelenskyj är framställd i svensk media i 2019 och 2022. Utifrån det teoretiska ramverket bestående av kritisk diskursanalys och kognitiv lingvistik undersöks hur diskursen kring Zelenskyj sett ut och hur den har förändrats. Studien utgår från den diskurshistoriska analysen eftersom den möjliggör för kvalitativ analys av nyhetstexter genom att belysa underliggande diskursiva strategier och eventuella konceptuella metaforer. Resultaten visar att diskursen kring Zelenskyj har genomgått en skiftning och att han i mars 2022 ingår i en hjältediskurs, vari han symboliserar förändring.

In recent years politicians have increasingly appeared in various types of entertainment media. For example, the President of the United States Joe Biden appeared on the talkshow The Late Late Show with James Corden. A notable example from 2022 is the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenkyy. He, who made his career as a comedian, became known as a political figure thanks to starring in the TV series Servant of the People. When he became president, the main focus from the Western media was that he was just that, a comedian. However, on February 24 2022, he was immortalized as the person who sat as president of Ukraine during the Russian invasion. The aim of this thesis is therefore to examine how the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, creates discourses in an entertainment interview during an ongoing war. The research questions for the essay are: (1) What discourses about the war in Ukraine does Zelenskyy raise verbally and non-verbally in My Next Guest with David Letterman and Volodymyr Zelenskyy? (2) How does Volodymyr Zelenskyy build authenticity and trust through the interview verbally and non-verbally? (3) What is the role of humor in communication about the war in Ukraine in the interview? The material analyzed in the thesis is the episode My next guest with David Letterman and Volodymyr Zelenskyy which is apart of David Letterman’s talkshow. Zelenskyy appeared in the thirty-minute interview in December of 2022 in Ukraine. The method used is multimodal discourse analysis and Fairclough's three-dimensional model. The results from the analysis present that the main discourse that Zelenskyj raises about the war is that Ukraine and Ukrainians are suffering and fighting to survive against Russia. With non-verbal communication, Zelenskyy succeeds in building trust and authenticity. As for humor, the analysis showed that it is important to use gallows humor to achieve resilience for the oppressed and that Zelenskyy can use satire to a certain extent in the interview. The main conclusion of the thesis is that Zelenskyy follows the conventions for a talkshow, however he differs from the classic talkshow format by speaking more about the Ukrainian people than himself.