The Russo-Ukrainian War is one of the first major conflicts of the 21st century to be shaped predominantly by emerging technologies – AI, AR, VR, digital media, and drones – which not only open up new avenues for documentation but also amplify the risks of propaganda and manipulation.

Digital media, saturated with visuals, has become a primary battlefield where wars are not only fought but also framed, interpreted, and remembered. Social media platforms, driven by algorithmic amplification, shape war narratives by privileging emotionally charged content and facilitating the rapid dissemination of diverse perspectives, testimonies, and propaganda. Conflicts now unfold “through a prism of personalized realities” and “war feeds” (Hoskins and Shchelin 2023), where the same event can be visualized and understood in radically different ways depending on ideological, political, or technological standpoints (Merrin and Hoskins 2024).

This project examines how digital visual imagery mediates the Russo-Ukrainian War, focusing on the role of visual narratives in shaping information warfare. Specifically, it explores how visual content – ai-imagery, cartoons, memes, posters, and other forms of digital art – functions as a tool of ideological influence and symbolic communication in Ukrainian and Russian social media. By analyzing the semiotic, ideological, and intertextual dimensions of these visual productions, the study seeks to uncover their discursive power in both societies and their impact on public perception.