Representation of the Ukrainian war in Sputnik Persian news agency

Russia's war with Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, and brought the world in front of new realities. Since the end of World War II, there has been no such a major war between two neighbors in Europe. Different views and analyzes about the war between Russia and Ukraine have been presented by the media of both countries, and both countries are trying to represent their discourse about the war. Therefore, the aim of this research is to find out how Persian Service of Sputnik news agency  represents the war between Russia and Ukraine in the first month of this war (i.e. February 24, 2022 to March 23, 2022) with Van Dyke and Fairclough's critical discourse analysis method on three levels. description, interpretation and explanation. The findings of this research show that the dominant discourse in the texts of Sputnik Persian news agency is a "defensive discourse". By presenting signs such as the nuclearization of Ukraine, the conspiracy of America and the West to weaken Russia, the genocide of Russians in the Donbas republic, and the threat of extreme nationalists and neo-Nazis to Russia, this news agency has represented that Russia's security is under threat and Russia under the leadership of Putin to provide It has started special military operations for its national security and interests, in other words for "self-defense".