Channels of war: Exploring Ukrainian and Russian Telegramspheres during the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

This work-in-progress addresses the role of Telegram in political communication in Ukraine and Russia in the context of the large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. The study aims to answer three research questions related to the development and influence of Russian and Ukrainian political Telegramspheres and the main narratives promoted by different political actors in relation to the invasion. The study uses network analysis and natural language processing techniques on a dataset of 5+ million messages posted by 836 Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking Telegram channels and public group chats between January 2022 and January 2023. Preliminary results suggest that both sides strategically increased their activity on Telegram after the invasion, with pro-invasion Russian channels dominating the network in terms of both the share of nodes and Authority and Hub scores. The study will further examine the content of Telegram messages to establish the prevalence of specific narratives by July 2023.