Strategic Narratives on Social Media: How Information Environments Shape the Russian-Ukrainian War Discourse in Seven European Countries

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been accompanied by the dissemination of strategic narratives aimed at legitimizing military aggression and undermining international support for Ukraine. While these narratives often originate from Russian officials and state-controlled media, they have been adopted by various actors in Europe and integrated into national public discourses. This article analyzes Facebook and Instagram posts (n = 93,217) by major news outlets and political actors in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden. Using automated content analysis, hierarchical clustering, and logistic regression models, we show that during the study period, narratives aligned with Russia’s strategic objectives were present in Hungary, Italy, and Germany, but largely absent in the other countries. In Germany and Italy, right-wing populist actors accounted for most pro-Russian war-related messaging, while in Hungary, pro-Russian narratives were also found in the media. The study contributes to research on disinformation, digital political communication, and information warfare.