Authors

Discussion

This paper interrogates the idealised and depoliticised use of “honour” in International Relations theory and its application to Russian foreign policy toward Ukraine. Drawing on data from ongoing discourse analysis of elite speeches, ideological essays, and media commentary from 2021–2023, the study traces the rhetorical evolution from fraternal rescue to annihilatory war. I propose a synthetic framework of gendered honour to illuminate how mass violence becomes intelligible and morally resonant in a political culture that relies on familial metaphors to justify domination.

Existing accounts—most notably Tsygankov (2012, 2024)—frame honour as a civilisational or status-seeking motive, overlooking its hierarchical and gendered dimensions. Yet gender is central to Russia’s ongoing project of state re-masculinisation and remains a key contested space in this conflict. Since the early 2000s, political legitimacy and national pride have been tied to performances of strength, control, and paternal protection: traits coded as masculine and embodied in Putin’s leadership style. Within this symbolic order, Ukraine has long been feminised: imagined as a dependent “younger sister,” a “wayward daughter,” or a “disloyal bride” seduced by the West (Riabov & Riabova, 2014; Gaufman, 2022).

I bring these literatures into conversation, arguing that Russian notions of honour cannot be understood apart from gender. This gendered hierarchy structures moral expectations of obedience and gratitude; defiance therefore appears not as political disagreement but betrayal. The invasion of 2022 was initially framed as a paternal rescue, only to be transformed by Ukraine’s resistance into a struggle to restore wounded masculine honour. Using the metaphor of the honour killing, the paper theorises Russia’s genocidal turn as an affective response to perceived dishonour – not strategic failure. It argues that the emotional structure of the war reveals how honour and gender operate together as constitutive forces in Russian state identity and violence toward Ukraine.