ANATOMY OF THE CONFLICT: TRANSFORMATION OF RUSSO-UKRAINIAN RELATIONS IN VISUAL CULTURE (1954-2025)

The research aim is to trace the memorial transformation of the image of Russo-Ukrainian relations in Ukraine’s visual culture, from the Soviet «fraternal» narrative to the contemporary antagonistic discourse. Methodology. The study is based on an interdisciplinary approach including cultural anthropology, memory studies, and discourse analysis. The research applies an extensive corpus of visual sources (sculpture, photography, cinematography, posters, caricatures, memes, social media content) to analyze the semantic shifts in the visual representation of Russia and Ukraine, as well as the specifics of their relationship. The novelty lies in its comprehensive and long-term analysis of visual culture as the primary field of the Russo-Ukrainian mnemonic struggle. Conclusions. The study confirms the transformation from the «fraternal» image to «neighborliness» in the 1990s – 2000s, and eventually, to the emergence of metaphors like «foe» and «aggressor» in Ukraine after 2014 and 2022. Ukrainian media have consistently attempted to form a powerful visual counternarrative, yet this process was complicated by inherited conceptual paradigms and the absence of a visual «enemy» template from the Soviet era. In general, modern Russian memory politics, while reinforcing the Soviet metanarrative of «one people», simultaneously aimed to construct Ukrainians as a marginalized «Other».