The article is devoted to the study of verbal identifiers of the enemy, their ranking in terms of normativity / abnormality of public communication is shown, and distinguished are stylistically neutral and stylistically colored language units. Described are the secondary nominations with negative connotations, as well as determining their communicative and pragmatic load. Achieving the goal was facilitated by the use of a descriptive method, methods of observation, contextual‑semantic and complex analysis. The corpus of the research material were national Ukrainian and regional mass media texts from 2022 to the beginning of 2023. It was found that during the specified time period, the linguistic identifiers of the invaders, which do not violate the canons of written forms of newspaper journalism, were activated. The secondary nominations are aimed at the expressiveness of language expression, the expression of contempt and hatred for one’s enemies and the creation of a specific communicative and pragmatic effect, which, although deaestheticizing the journalistic space, does reorganize the established media space, clearly reflecting the social perception of Ukrainians to the realities of the Russian‑Ukrainian war. The linguistic creativity of Ukrainian journalists expresses a combination of pathos and irony, usually employed to humiliate the Russian enemy.