THE CONCEPT OF HATE SPEECH IN THE PROPAGANDA DISCOURSE OF THE AGGRESSOR COUNTRY

The article attempts to catalog the key markers of hate speech used in the propaganda narratives of the aggressor country to create an image of the enemy. The article analyzes an array of propaganda material produced by the Russian Telegram channel ‘SlezhuZa’. The most frequent and significant concepts for the propaganda ecosystem of the Russian Federation are identified: ‘Ukrainianism’, ‘Russophobia’, ‘decaying West’, and ‘Anti-Russia project’. The extra-linguistic circumstances of the origin of each concept are characterized; the etymological layer of each concept is revealed to expose its primary meaning; the polar components of the concepts are established through the explanation of lexemes with associative links, mythologemes, culture, and ideologemes. The linguistic picture of the world based on a particular concept is reconstructed. The historical manifestations of concepts that ensure their influence through the diachrony of ‘visions’ of the Russian Federation are understood. The effect of the information bubble, into which the recipients of the Russian network channel ‘SlezhuZa’ fall, is problematized, given the transboundary nature of the Telegram environment and the lack of development of media critical thinking among Ukrainian users. It is noted that hate speech, instrumentally used in hybrid influences, inspired aggression against our country and is now used to legitimize military actions. It is concluded that propaganda campaigns that unfold around precedentsetting narratives exploit the binary opposition of Us/Them, which keeps the image of the enemy in the focus of public attention. It is indicated that the lexical expansion of hate speech occurs through the creation of neologisms and occasionalisms. It is found that the peripheral meanings of the considered concepts are situational in nature of application, have a high level of associativity and allusiveness to the historical past.