The effects of Ukraine’s communication strategy in the Visegrad Four and the “Global South.” Understanding the target audiences and limits

The contribution compares the challenges of Ukraine’s communication strategy in countries of postcolonial Africa and post-Communist Central Europe by relying on case studies from Mali and Zimbabwe and Hungary and Slovakia respectively. The central argument is that while Ukraine’s narrative relies strongly on appeals to solidarity and condemnation of aggressive warfare as key tenets of the liberal international order (LIO), the reception of this narrative is distorted by local revisionist actors and forces who find themselves allied with Russia against LIO. Thus, correct reception of Ukraine’s core international message about sovereignty, self-determination, and freedom as basic shared principles is not universally automatic and requires more attention and a more significant investment in developing global communication strategies.