Serhii Abramenko

This study investigates how social media data can be used to study shifts in identity, focusing on Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine war. We analyze VK users' reported language proficiency and the language of tweets and note a significant shift from Russian to Ukrainian during both the early (2014–2022) and later (2022–) phases of the war. Additionally, we observe a positive association at the province level between these language changes and shifts in ethnic identity reported in nationally representative surveys. The findings underscore the effectiveness of social media data in tracking and quantifying shifts in identity.

How quickly and how deeply can wars reshape national identity? We study this question in the context of Ukraine and the Russia–Ukraine war, using rich data spanning ethnic, linguistic, and cultural dimensions of identity. We document large and persistent shifts toward Ukrainian identity following the onset of the war in 2014 and Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Nationally representative quarterly surveys comprising over 150,000 observations show substantial increases in Ukrainian ethnic self-identification after both episodes. Language adjustment was modest after 2014, but after 2022 the share replying in Russian fell by about 20 percentage points, corroborated by within-user language changes on Twitter and by shifts toward Ukrainian in Google searches. Consistent with national consolidation rather than polarization, the largest shifts occurred in districts with historically higher shares of ethnic Russians. Cultural consumption and intergenerational choices have also shifted sharply since 2022, toward Ukrainian cuisine, Ukrainian-language music, and more Ukraine-associated baby names. A range of evidence argues against compositional change or population displacement as primary explanations. Together, the results show that identity is far more malleable than commonly assumed: large-scale violence can generate rapid, behaviorally meaningful, and broadly shared identity change, even among populations with substantial prewar cultural and linguistic ties to the aggressor.