Public discourse in the European neighbour states of Ukraine concerning the Russian invasion

The dissemination of information about events in Ukraine is enhanced by active commenting, in particular, 65% of comments are on the topic of Ukrainian refugees, 18% of comments are related to EU sanctions against Russia, and 15% of comments are about the war in Ukraine. We should note that only 35% of the news is published about Ukrainian refugees, which users automatically popularize in search engines and news feeds on social networks by actively commenting. Moreover, 82% of posts are devoted to the EU sanctions policy, which is also accompanied by discussions, and 85% of posts are about the war, which has fewer comments and less popularity. Compared to other countries, the most active commenting on military events in Ukraine and related topics is in Hungary. Increasing the negative tone of comments can contribute to enhancing the meaning of a discrediting context or diminishing the essence of a neutral/positive news context. Through intensive negative commenting, it is possible to create a distorted view of information content circulated in the Hungarian media space and to impose narratives.

The tone of the Hungarian public discourse regarding the war in Ukraine is distinct from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania. In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania, neutral and explanatory news on the Russian invasion is prevalent, with a low percentage of negative tone in Poland. In Hungary, 57,9% of messages about the war in Ukraine have a negative tone, 10% of news have a negative context regarding the EU sanctions policy against Russia, and 5,2% of posts contain antagonistic reactions concerning Ukrainian refugees.

The formation of a negative media space in Hungary occurs through the creation of closed groups on social media and the use of public non-thematic channels of the tourist, practical, or artistic direction for spreading information. To prepare discrediting content, a multilingual semantic core of the page is created using search words that have a high search frequency and popularity. Such posts don't have coherent sentences, they only contain repetition of tags and keywords in several languages - English, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Uyghur, Hungarian, Thai, Tajik, Hindi, Hebrew, etc.

The general portrait of authors participating in the discussion of the war in Ukraine is formed by middle-aged and older men, and older women who are interested in pets, beauty, design, travels, music, cars, and nature. SEO specialization should be highlighted among their professional orientations.

The geographical core of public discussions is concentrated in Hungary (75%), the USA (14%), Romania (5%), Slovakia (2%), Morocco (1%), France (1%), India (1%), Turkey (1%). We would like to add that 50% of the video dedicated to the war in Ukraine, which were commented in Hungarian and in the content of which there are keywords-anchors in the Hungarian language, do not have a geographical identification with any country. Additionally, most of this news is already closed in the middle of December 2022 according to YouTube policy. At the same time, the topic `Ukrainian refugees' is covered Hungary (94%), Romania (2%), Turkey (2%), the USA (1%) and Algeria (1%). The impact of sanctions on Hungary's energy security is primarily discussed in Hungary (89%) and Turkey (11%).

Social media have become the leading online platforms for Hungary, where discussions about the war in Ukraine are concentrated, and only the EU sanctions policy is covered mainly by the mass media. 82% of content on social networks, 11% in mass media, 6% in blogs, and 1% in forums are devoted to military topics and Ukrainian refugees. The crisis in the EU and energy security are mainly paid attention by mass media (82%) and blogs (18%). Therefore, the media platforms that write about the war in Ukraine are youtube.com (79%), facebook.com (10%), disqus.com (4%), portfolio.hu (2%). 76% of content on youtube.com, 12% on facebook.com, 3% on disqus.com, 2% on portfolio.hu, and news.leportale.com are devoted to the topic of Ukrainian refugees. The EU crisis and energy security are discussed on 168.hu (28% of content), disqus.com (18%), blogaszat.hu, klubradio.hu, news.leportale.com, portfolio.hu, szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, and ujszo.com (9% each).

The Hungarian public discourse is overloaded with the spread of Russian propaganda narratives. Attempts by non-governmental organizations (the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union and the Political Capital) and European institutions (the European Digital Media Observatory and the French news agency Agence France Presse) to change the situation remain less visible against the background of uncontrolled dissemination of falsified data. The launched Hungarian-language fact-checking sites Lakmusz (lakmusz.hu) and Tenykerdes (tenykerdes.afp.com) are unable to resist the spread of politically motivated information [Batorfy, Bleyer-Simon, Szabo, Galambosi: 2022]. The situation is further complicated by the government decision regarding the distribution of press products during a state of emergency in Hungary that has been declared in June 2022. According to Regulation 210/2022 [Magyarorszag Hivatalos Lapja: 2022], indirect state support for newspaper vendors could be granted for press products with official government news about an emergency. As a result, the government-aligned press can receive additional assistance in contradistinction to the government-critical media.

The public space of Hungary and Poland is characterized by more active publication of negative information about the war events in Ukraine and related topics compared to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania. The geographically heterogeneous media space of Hungary and Poland is distinguished by numerous messages with a negative tone, and YouTube has become the central platform for their propagation. At the same time, the Hungarian media space is noted by an increase in negative assessments of the war in Ukraine and military aid to Ukraine, as well as an emphasis on the crisis in the EU. Typical features of negative messages in the Hungarian and Polish public space regarding war stories in Ukraine are the use of sensational headlines, provocative pictures, and derogatory comparisons; creation of authorities from the `people' who possess `secret knowledge'; misrepresentation of decision-makers; shift of accents.

The joint public discourse of all countries regarding Russian invasion is focused on mentioning stable phrases to describe the situation in Ukraine. In particular, when mentioning the topic of war, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarian media platforms most often use the phrase `war in Ukraine', although in Poland `Russian attack' and `Russia's attack on Ukraine' are popular, and in Romania - `war with Russia'. The topic of refugees from Ukraine is represented by the stable phrase `Ukrainian refugees', which is simultaneously used by the phrase `support for Ukraine' in Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania. Within the EU sanctions policy, attention in all countries is focused on the discussed energy security in the context of EU sanctions against Russia, and in Hungary the emphasis is on the crisis in the EU.

Results and Conclusions

With the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the government accounts of world leaders and European neighbour states of Ukraine have become the multilingual media agencies that cover not only news but also national defence strategies, visits by high-ranking officials, and bilateral and multilateral support for Ukraine at the official and public levels. However, the public space of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary turned out to be contradictory regarding the formation of narratives about the war events in Ukraine after the Russian invasion and on the eve. It is possible to highlight trends that have formed in the context of the war, Ukrainian refugees, and EU sanctions against Russia.

- Theme `War in Ukraine'

On the eve of the invasion (November-December 2021 and January-early February 2022), there was not much activity regarding the publication of news about the danger from Russia's side to Ukraine. It can be noted that key messages in media focused on the danger of escalation of the confrontation between the West and Russia and mentioned the weakness of Ukraine, as well as the inability to resist such security challenges. These ideas continued to be repeated even after the Russian invasion almost until the end of March 2022.

Since February 2022, the increase in the amount of news about military actions in Ukraine and the support of the international community and neighbouring countries of Ukraine has led to the strengthening of anti-Ukrainian rhetoric in the European and global media space. Thanks to the consolidation of the efforts of Ukraine and European partners, who have promoted the activities of civic organizations to detect and refute fake news, a partial transformation of the media space of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Poland is taking place, but the public space of Hungary remains overloaded with manipulative news. Regarding changes in the media space of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland, it is possible to note the emergence of a tendency to consciously prepare news about Ukraine with unclear and indistinct content, which prompts users to subjective comparative thoughts about the events in Ukraine and the policy of the USA, Germany, the UK, and France in other regions. The majority of citizens do not have knowledge about the historical development of countries, the actual reasons of conflicts and confrontations but have general ideas about such events. However, the combination of different historical events and eras leads to the formation of an associative chain and distortion of the main meaning of the message.

- Theme `Ukrainian refugees'

In November-December 2021, only in Poland there were publications on the topic of Ukrainian refugees, which were discussed in the context of a possible escalation of military actions by Russia. At the beginning of 2022, the activity of public discourse in Poland and Romania increased in the direction of discussions of the countries' actions that would be adopted by the national governments if Russia starts an invasion of Ukraine. While the public space of Slovakia was focused on the news about the blocking of Nord Stream II and the appropriate security and social consequences for the EU and the state. The Czech media talked about the provision of humanitarian aid to Ukraine in the context of a possible Russian invasion. Hungarian public discourse was focused on the discussion of Viktor Orban's visit to Moscow and the `dividends' for the state, as well as the weakness of Ukrainian policy towards national minorities.

After the invasion of Russia and the increase in the flow of Ukrainian refugees, there is an extension of thematic news in all countries with an emphasis on the provision of humanitarian aid to Ukrainians who remained in Ukraine and citizens who began to leave for safe neighbouring countries. Most of the discussions and news about Ukrainian refugees fell on Poland, Romania, and the Czech Republic, but the public space of Hungary turned out to be the most replete with negative news concerning Ukrainian refugees.

- Theme `EU sanctions against Russia'

Discussion of the EU sanctions policy against Russia before its attack was most active in Romania and Poland, which also demonstrated sustained public interest in the topic after the start of war against Ukraine. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, narrow thematic discussions can be observed, which take place in accordance with the decision-making by the European Commission regarding the introduction of the next sanction package. The predominance of negative discussions about the EU sanctions policy against Russia is observed only in Hungary.

Thus, the public discourse of Poland before and after the start of war against Ukraine remained more stable regarding the assessment of events in the context of war, refugees, and sanctions, i.e., there was no sharp increase in negative or positive reports about possible and current war events. In contrast to Hungary, where there has been an intensification of negative messages since February 2022, and before that more neutral assessments of events in Ukraine in the context of war, refugees and sanctions prevailed.

Discussion. At the expert level of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary, there was an underestimation of the human resource potential of Ukrainians, as well as their ability to perform tasks under any circumstance. The mental portrait of the Ukrainian nation has always been perceived through the prism of Russian disinformation and was artificially imposed on both European and global level. However, the Ukrainian army overcame the negative world assessment of its ability to defend the state and maintain control over the capital Kyiv. In general, the spread of discrediting or false news about Russian attack in the national space is related to the role of each country in the process of influencing decision-making regarding the provision of political, economic, military, or social assistance to Ukraine, as well as the specifics of activities of the ruling political elite of each country. The further development of public discourse will be formed under the focus of attention of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and partially Hungary on overcoming national barriers to create an open and transparent media space, devoid of propaganda and disinformation.

Solving the issue of spreading disinformation is very difficult since the technological development of society allows creating and dispersing of any information without any restrictions. Only measures at the global level, which would not turn into a fight against freedom of speech, will be able to reduce the level of disinformation but not overcome it completely. In the short term, there will be technological updates regarding the identification of authors and their blocking for the dissemination of discrediting information, the modernization of the legislation of EU countries concerning prosecution for the dissemination of fake announcements and hate speech, the increase in centres engaged in fact-checking and refutation of false data, deepening of knowledge in media literacy, the standards' transformation of ethical conduct of journalists and their responsibility for spreading fake news. In the long term, the mentioned processes should become a global trend of ethical conduct with information.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation within the project `Temporary Funding Initiative for Threatened and Refugee Researchers'.

Gratitude to the Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich for assistance in the framework of the Ukraine Support Funds and YouScan for access to the platform for conducting this research.

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