Since the beginning of the large-scale war, Russia has clearly been trying to overthrow the Ukrainian authorities and establish its own. In particular, Russia illegally appoints its own people to senior positions in the temporarily occupied territories. Ukraine is gradually driving the occupiers out of its lands, but Russia considers its appointed government to be legitimate, and it calls the Ukrainian, legally elected in fact, “Kyiv regime”, which supposedly “illegally” leads Ukraine.

That is, Russian propaganda replaces the word “government” with “regime” in order to confirm the so-called illegitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities, which, according to Russia, does not act on behalf of the people. Also, calling the Ukrainian authorities led by Volodymyr Zelenskyi the “Kyiv regime”, propaganda blurs the concept of the Ukrainian state, which allegedly no longer exists. At the same time, it focuses its attention on certain boundaries of the so-called government, where it operates. The Kyiv regime means that it operates only within Kyiv and does not extend to other territories. Allegedly, Ukrainians are hostages of this regime and cannot overthrow it on their own without the help of Russia.

With the help of this word, as well as the same special military operation, pops and others, Russia seeks to blur the borders and change the reality in which it saves Ukrainians from an illegal regime that captivates Ukraine, and not vice versa - it itself seeks to enslave Ukrainians, destroy Ukrainian cities and villages.

This is the seventh text for the new section Newspeak, which Detector Media launched as part of the “Disinformation Chronicles” project. In it, we will tell and explain new lexemes that propaganda uses to distort reality.