Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―New York Global Science Conference 2026‖ (May 18-20, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – New York, USA, 2026. - 322 p.

175 The subject of the study is the representation of Ukraine before the international community through the Russian propaganda narratives reflected in Y. Mendel statements presented in the interview with T. Carlson. Due to the discursive analysis of the full transcript of the Y. Mendel`s with T. Carlson, four key communicative lines were identified within which narrative framing and media manipulation techniques were implemented. Among them: the narrative about the ―destruction of democracy and freedom of speech in Ukraine‖, the delegitimization of Ukrainian authorities, the ―futility of the war‖ narrative promotion, the narrative concerning the ―colossal scale of corruption in Ukraine‖. In particular, to form the discursive direction about the ―democracy and freedom of speech destruction‖, Y. Mendel describes Ukraine as a country with ―solid prohibitions‖. Provides an example of the practice with ―mandating vehicle stops during a minute of silence‖ in commemoration of those who died in the Russo- Ukrainian war. Moreover, Y. Mendel claims that Ukrainians have limited freedom to express criticism of the authorities and alleges the persecution of journalists. It is worth noting that these statements are not confirmed by the reports of international organizations. In particular, the Freedom in the World 2025 report on Ukraine states that citizens and the media in this country are able to openly criticize the authorities; even during the ongoing war, independent media and active anti-corruption investigations continue to operate in Ukraine [10]. Similarly, the Reporters without Borders (RSF) organization notes that, although Ukraine faces wartime problems, Ukrainian journalists have the opportunity to criticize the authorities, conduct investigations, and work in a pluralistic environment. At the same time, RSF indicates that Ukraine ranks significantly higher in the press freedom than Russia [11]. Thus, the statements from Y. Mendel may indicate the use of manipulative framing strategies in order to present Ukraine to an international audience as an ―autocratic‖ state. A key feature of this propaganda technique with rhetoric made by Y. Mendel is the use of ―half-truths.‖ When individual and non-mass problems that may exist in any state or society are presented as evidence of systemic and large-scale