Abstract
The conditions of the full-scale war have substantially transformed the role of Ukraine’s public diplomacy, increasing the significance of digital channels as instruments of international outreach, coalition consolidation, resource mobilization, and the reputational anchoring of Ukraine in the external environment. In academic discourse, Ukraine’s digital public diplomacy is most often examined either through general characteristics of the state’s communication activity or through the analysis of individual platforms without comparing their functions within a unified system. The purpose of the article is to identify the functional specialization of the digital instruments of Ukraine’s public diplomacy under wartime conditions and to clarify how different digital channels ensure coalition-political outreach, the conversion of international attention into resource support, and the long-term reputational and cultural consolidation of Ukraine in the external environment. The empirical materials of the study include the President of Ukraine’s Telegram channel, the UNITED24 platform, and the website of the Ukrainian Institute. Data processing was carried out through a reproducible analytical pipeline in Python, using content analysis, lexicographic coding, calendar-based aggregations, and a comparative approach. The study demonstrates that Ukraine’s digital public diplomacy has a functionally differentiated character. The President of Ukraine’s Telegram channel primarily serves as an instrument of coalition-political outreach and the operative mobilization of international support. UNITED24 operates as a mechanism of donor action, fundraising, procedural accountability, and the transformation of attention into measurable resource participation. The Ukrainian Institute provides a longer-term horizon of cultural presence, international partnership, and Ukraine’s reputational consolidation in the world. It has been established that the differences between these channels are manifested not only in the content they disseminate, but also in the type of external signal they produce, the time horizon of their action, and the way communication is translated into political, resource-based, or reputational outcomes. The effectiveness of Ukraine’s digital public diplomacy is determined not by the aggregate intensity of communication as such, but by the coordination of several specialized modes of influence that combine political mobilization, transactional engagement of support, and long-term external legitimacy. The functional specialization of digital channels constitutes a precondition for the resilience of Ukraine’s public diplomacy during the war, as it makes it possible to combine the short-term horizon of international response with the longer-term logic of reproducing the state’s international presence through reputation.
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