Staging (un)acceptable death: Techniques in Russian war propaganda

This article examines how the discursive power of death is mobilised in Russian television propaganda during the war against Ukraine. Drawing on a systematically monitored corpus of episodes of Vesti nedeli, the flagship news programme hosted by Dmitry Kiselyov on the state-controlled channel Rossiya 1, the study analyses representations of deaths discursively normalised within wartime propaganda in broadcasts from 2024 and 2025 through three segments. While the Kremlin’s core narratives shape individuals in familiar ways: heroic soldiers, innocent victims, and vilified enemies, our critical discourse analysis reveals techniques that harness the discursive power of death to shape necropolitical subjectivities amid large‑scale warfare. Acceptable soldier deaths are framed through personalised narratives and flexible constructions of national identity. In contrast, unacceptable civilian deaths are portrayed through medico-legal and voyeuristic imagery, emphasising corporeal suffering. These findings offer new insights into the evolving techniques of Russian war propaganda and its role in mediating violence.