This article addresses the issue of the axiological and derivational specificity of the secondary names of defenders and enemies of Ukraine during the period of the Russian intervention of 2022. Its relevance is due to the need for a comprehensive study of new trends in connotative nomination, as well as the importance of outlining the value orientations of Ukrainians in the critical conditions of the war. The author defines 5 groups of secondary names of persons created during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022: 1) names of soldiers of the Armed Forces; 2) the names of the occupiers; 3) names of Ukrainian politicians; 4) names of politicians from the aggressor side; 5) names of foreign politicians who have supported Ukraine. The author emphasizes that modern Ukrainians use both traditional means of emotional and evaluative nomination, as well as original derivational mechanisms, in particular graphoderivation, a non‐standard combination of word‐forming components, witty convergence of words, etc. For the first time, the author substantiates the connotative derivation as an effective method of verbal psycho‐regulation and worldview self‐presentation of Ukrainians during the Russian aggression, since the names of defenders and enemies in the modern Ukrainian communicative space perform a number of communicative‐pragmatic and psychoregulatory functions: they enable the nomination of persons according to new value criteria, provide an outlet for negative emotions, indicate a cultural and moral superiority over the invaders, define the political position against the background of the enemy’s geopolitical and informational aggression.