Social representation of the war in Ukraine among Moldovans: beyond pros and cons

This chapter explores the social representation of the war in Ukraine among Moldovans, drawing on social representation theory. The analysis is based on a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data. A representative sample of the population of the Republic of Moldova (n=1,112) participated in an open-ended questionnaire survey, while a series of 17 individual interviews and two focus groups were conducted with adult women and men in Chisinau and other localities in Moldova during the fall of 2023. The most prevalent themes emerging from both the survey and interviews associate the war with tragedy, death, human suffering, fear of the conflict’s spread, and the desire for peace. Less common, yet more polarizing, were discussions around political blame for the war, with divergent views attributing responsibility to either Russia or Ukraine and the West. Another significant aspect of this social representation includes “ignorance,” reflecting the challenges of accessing objective knowledge about the events, and “suspicion,” indicating a distrust of media and institutions perceived to manipulate information about the conflict. The chapter also explores the range of arguments, emotions, and language used by participants who expressed varying perspectives on responsibility for the Ukraine conflict, whether they held Russia, Ukraine and the West, or both sides accountable.