Special Military Operation

It is widely considered to be a euphemism created to minimize and obfuscate the true nature of the full-fledged war started by Russia, and to claim Russian victory in the operation no matter the results.

The expression appears prominently in the public address by President of Russia Vladimir Putin titled "On conducting a special military operation", which the Russian leader released on 24 February 2022.

The term "special military operation" has also been widely used in Ukrainian media, generally written in scare quotes, which highlight the psychologically artificial nature of the expression, and applied in the context of describing Russian actions negatively.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine has officially declared the war. The use of euphemisms to describe military activities was common in the Soviet Union and in Russia prior to the invasion of Ukraine; this includes:

• Little green men, masked soldiers of the Russian Federation who appeared during the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014 carrying weapons and equipment, but wearing unmarked green army uniforms and called "polite people" in Russian media.
• Soviet invasion of Poland (1939) as "liberation campaign of the Red Army", then subsequently "combat operations during the reunification of the USSR, Western Ukraine and Western Belarus"
• Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968) as "friendly assistance to the fraternal people of Czechoslovakia" (not officially considered a military operation by Russia as of 2018)
• Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989); at first officially named "the introduction of a limited contingent of Soviet troops into Afghanistan", then later called "combat operations in Afghanistan"
• First Chechen War (1994–1996) as the "operation on the restoration of the constitutional order in Chechnya", and then afterwards as "an armed conflict in the Chechen Republic and in the adjacent territories of the Russian Federation, assigned to the zone of armed conflict"
• Second Chechen War (1999–2009) being described as part of a "counter-terrorist operation on the territory of the North Caucasus region"
• Russo-Georgian War (2008) as a "special peace enforcement operation" for "ensuring the security and protection of citizens of the Russian Federation living in the territories of the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia"

According to some observers, such as Russian journalist Ksenia Turkova [ru], the purpose of this terminology is mainly to create a perception that war is more benign than it actually is, by softening the wording in official reports and in the media.

Applications in Russian media

In Russian propaganda, the term "special military operation" is the main designation for aggression against Ukraine and is used to replace the definition of "war", which the Russian authorities and state media carefully avoided. On 24 February 2022, 6 hours after the start of the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, the Russian government tightened censorship by officially requiring the media to use only materials provided by Russian government sources. Subsequently, under pressure from the authorities, many organizations left the country or were closed. The Russian authorities blocked access to a number of Internet resources that refused to comply with the requirements.

In early November 2022, the "rule" was first violated by TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov during a radio broadcast; later on, the events in Ukraine were publicly called "war" by Vladimir Putin, Sergey Lavrov and Margarita Simonyan. In general, Russian authorities and media have tried to avoid the term "war" in the context of Ukraine, instead using it in terms like "gas war" or "information war". In March 2024, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the invasion was a "de jure a special military operation" which, after foreign countries began delivering military aid to Ukraine, devolved into a "de facto war" against the "collective West".

Applications in other media

Certain internationally distributed news agencies, such as Al Jazeera English (AJE), have also used the term in instances with quotation marks applied and details provided about the war's conduct. For example, a March 2022 report by AJE stated that the terminology of having a "'special military operation' should be used to describe Moscow’s assault on Ukraine" according to Russian officials because "the Kremlin has been working hard to promote its version of events in the face of widespread indignation and an anti-war movement at home".

On 20 September 2023, the Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya accused the Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, who was serving as the council president, of turning a council meeting into "a one-man stand-up show" by allowing an appearance by President of Ukraine Volodomyr Zelenskyy. To which Rama replied "this is not a special operation by the Albanian presidency" adding "There is a solution for this. If you agree, you stop the war and President Zelenskyy will not take the floor."

In colloquial speech

Social anthropologist Aleksandra Arkhipova [ru] noted that as of September 2022, the abbreviation "SVO" was more commonly used instead of "special operation". According to Arkhipova, this is due to the length of the full term, which is inconvenient in speech, and the concealment of the essence of the term in the abbreviation.

Strictly speaking, a "special operation" (as defined by organizations like NATO) is a military term for a task that requires specially trained units for an unconventional operation. However, the meaning of the Russian "Special military operation" in Ukraine is different. This ambiguity was used to hide and distort the true meaning of what an "SVO" would entail, and has been described as an example of "doublespeak" and "doublethink".

Konstantin Gorobets, an associate professor at the University of Groningen, argued that, unlike "war", the term "special military operation" positioned Ukraine as a colony of Russia, denies it equal standing as a sovereign state, and uses the "language of policing". Gorobets says that the implication of the term is imperialistic, "because it assumes that Russia is using force within its own domain, of which Ukraine [in their view] is but a part."

Due to its nature as an overt euphemism, the term has become an Internet meme that satirizes Russian propaganda. At the end of 2022, the euphemism won in the nomination "Expression of the Year" of Russia's "Word of the Year" competition (with the Russian word for war (война) being the overall winner). It was also selected as the 2022 Euphemism of the Year by the American Dialect Society.

The semi-official symbol of the term is the Latin letter "Z".

Analogous euphemisms from other countries

The practice of using euphemisms in violent conflict is also used within other nations:

• The Biafran War as a "police action"
• The Korean War as a "police action"
• U.S. President Lyndon Johnson called the growing involvement in the Vietnam War "limited military action"
• "Daitōa Seisen" (Japanese: 大東亜聖戦, lit. 'Greater East Asian Holy War') and "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", two euphemisms used by the government of the Empire of Japan during the Pacific War and the Far East War [ja].
  • "Shina Jihen" [ja] (Japanese: 支那事変, lit. 'China Incident'), a euphemism used by the government during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
• The Turkish invasion of Cyprus is often referred to by the Turkish and their supporters with the words "peace operation", "holiday" and "intervention" as euphemisms.

Analogous phrases

Related topics

• Credibility gap – a term used to describe U.S. government dishonesty about the Vietnam War
• Disinformation - a process of media influence
• Distinction without a difference – Type of logical fallacy
• Impression management – Process to attempt to influence perceptions
• La guerre sans nom – "the war without a name"; what the Algerian War was called in France as it was occurring
• Minimisation (psychology) – Type of deception
• Non-denial denial – Statement that seems to deny an accusation but does not

• Adisti, Stefani Ernes; Charima, Yunia Aqlia; Cahyono, Setyo Prasiyanto (18 December 2022). "Language and Framing In Russia-Ukraine Conflict News". The Proceedings of English Language Teaching, Literature, and Translation (ELTLT). 11 (1): 9–19. eISSN 2580-7528. ISSN 2580-1937.
• Eldin, Ahmad Abdel Tawwab Sharaf (October 2023). "A linguistic Study of the Media War between Russia and Ukraine". Nile Valley Journal for Humanitarian, Social and Educational Studies and Research. 40 (40): 51–80. doi:10.21608/jwadi.2023.320760. Archived from the original on 18 October 2023 – via EKB Journal Management System.