Metaphorical code of the language of military journalists in Telegram: Decoding semantic symbols

The main purpose of this article is to identify the main thematic categories and semantic symbols used by military personnel to convey information about their activities in Ukraine and the political processes around this conflict. The relevance of the research lies in the need to understand and analyze the metaphorical code, which is one of the key elements of military personnel communication with the audience and which can have a significant impact on the perception of armed conflicts. The problem of the article lies in the difficulty of deciphering and understanding the metaphorical code, especially for non-professionals in the field of linguistics. A study of the publications of three Russian war correspondents for the period from February 2022 to January 2023 was conducted. Among the general array of publications, those in which the author’s position is most clearly traced were selected. The article presents a decoding of the most striking metaphors from the analyzed texts. Content analysis was chosen as the main research method, supplemented by a meaningful analysis of military personnel publications. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that there are several main thematic categories used by military officers in their publications: military operations and conflicts; political agreements and treaties; patriotism and national identity; treason and deception; potential and prospects for development; resource and economic issues. The main purposes of using metaphors can be called: creating an emotional response; forming empathy for victims and participants of military operations; strengthening the impact and memorability of the message; warning about the possible consequences of the conflict and mobilizing the audience for active actions; forming a negative image of the enemy.