Consciental War against Ukraine: Putinism vs Ukrainian Identity

The purpose of this article is to conceptualize the essence of Russia’s war against Ukraine as a consciental war, which, according to the authors, is an integral part of the nature of the “putinism” political regime. At the level of a research hypothesis, we state that it is consciental weapons, that allow this political regime to reproduce itself, that is, to provide internal political legitimation. At the same time, the implementation of Russia’s foreign policy strategies of war and aggression necessarily involves the use of consciental weapons against the countries of the post-Soviet space. A special place belongs to Ukraine, whose destruction is an existential strategy for Russia. To achieve the goal of the research, were used such methods as historical-comparative, discourse, system, etc.. As a result of the study, it was established that the actualization of the concept of “consciental war” is appropriate in the context of the formation of mechanisms of national stability. Such processes have already begun in Ukraine, based on the realization that victory in the war against the terrorist regime of the Russian aggressor is impossible without a conceptual change in state strategies and doctrines in the field of identity politics.