Geopolitical competition or a conflict of values?A comparison between the US, EU and Russian strategic narratives on the Ukraine war (2022-2023)

The beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 reignited the study of strategic narratives employed by the main actors involved in the conflict. This article focuses on a three-way comparison between the strategic narratives employed to justify action in Ukraine by the European Union, the United States and the Russian Federation. It argues that, consistent with previous findings, the US and EU conceptualize the conflict as one between systems of government and values while Russia describes it as a geopolitical competition for power, disguised as a conflict of values. While the former focus on liberal values and the rules-based order, the latter emphasizes state sovereignty and multipolarity as the correct situation to be maintained. While expected, an increase of the value-based narratives in Russian discourse was not identified. However, when adopting value-based narratives, Russia focused on the traditional family and maintaining natural hierarchies.