Imposing shameful “epithets” is a tactic used by propagandists when addressing people. These are abusive and insulting words referring to a specific group of persons or one person, in order to form a “correct vision” of a phenomenon or process, according to propaganda. So, if a propagandist wants to change his/her mind about this or that person and form the desired effect (negative attitude) among the viewer/listener and reader, he or she uses profanity, imposes nicknames and shameful “epithets” on the opponent.

Repeatedly propagandists turned to the personality of Volodymyr Zelenskyi, trying to humiliate and devalue him in the eyes of Ukrainians. With the help of Russian propaganda, Zelenskyi was able to appear in various roles, in particular:

A vain person who spends all budgetary funds only on himself;

A punisher-satanist, destroying the Ukrainian church property;

A person with drug addiction;

A theft of Western money;

A puppet puppet controlled by the West;

Inhuman, throwing “everyone” to the front, etc.

Such “epithets” are intended to form a negative image of Zelenskyi among the public, allegedly reinforced by his actions. Propagandists deliberately build the image of “Zelia” as an envoy of the West in order to undermine his authority both among Europeans and Ukrainians.

As for the formation of negative attitudes towards a certain group of people, in our study “You are either Russian or gay”, we described the use of offensive words by Russia to spread LGBT disinformation. For example, in the course of our analysis, both in the Russian and Ukrainian segments of social networks, the words “gayropa”, “evrogay”, “UN gay assembly”, “gaysek of the Council of Europe”, “hohlopedyk” were often encountered. Such words are hate speech towards representatives of the LGBTI+ community.

Propagandists use perverted phrases to ridicule and humiliate LGBT people. Readers get the impression that everything that concerns LGBT people is negative. Moreover, when the authors spread fakes and use swear words about LGBT people to refer to Ukrainian or Western leadership, in this way they associate homosexuality with something humiliating, a sign of weakness or incompetence, etc. Although homosexuality is the same common orientation as heterosexuality.