Ukraine in Transition: Language Shift Among Russophone Vloggers.

This article investigates the rapid language shift from Russian to Ukrainian among three Russian-speaking Ukrainian vloggers during the full-scale war in Ukraine, highlighting how sociopolitical motivations and ethnonational identity influence language choice. Using approximately 10 hours of livestream videos from the YouTube channel ЛЕВИ НА ДЖИПІ ("Lions on a Jeep"), the study tracks the vloggers' transition from predominantly Russian speech before the invasion to mostly Ukrainian within weeks, analyzing linguistic complexity, code-switching, and identity signaling. The findings show that despite varying preexisting proficiency and passive knowledge of Ukrainian, motivation driven by the war and national loyalty accelerated their deliberate language shift, with Ukrainian serving as a marker of political stance and identity, while occasional Russian use persisted mainly in response to guests or for rhetorical effect. This case study contributes to understanding synchronic sociolinguistic change as a conscious, rapid process influenced by external conflict, and suggests broader implications for language shift dynamics in Ukraine's evolving linguistic landscape.