Legitimation of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian TV news programme <i>Vremya</i>

Abstract This study investigates legitimation efforts in Russian state-affiliated televisual media discourse seeking sanction for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Television is investigated since it has not only been under-researched in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) in general, but also because it remains the most consumed medium in Russia. One programme is selected for analysis: Vremya (‘Time’) broadcast on Russia’s biggest state-controlled channel, Channel One. The analysis seeks to gain insight into Russia’s newly emerged rhetoric on Ukraine post-full-scale invasion. It finds several legitimation strategies used by the programme to justify the invasion, including authority, reasoning, past/future imaginaries, morality, altruism, and blaming and defaming.