The article is devoted to the study of the mechanisms of the secondary nomination of the qualitatively categorical paradigm through the prism of cognition, the choice of linguistic tools in particular, and the influence of linguistic personality in general. Issues of the bilateral relationship and mutual influence of the culture and language of the ethnic group, the formation of conceptual and linguistic pictures of world perception are considered. The article analyzes the peculiarities of the formation of lexical innovations in the modern Ukrainian language to denote different domains of the concept of "war". It traces lexical-semantic shifts influenced by the judgment of military aggression and criticism of political and war crimes committed by the aggressor country. The scientific research contains the elements of axiology since the linguistic analysis of lexical innovations makes it possible to clarify the mechanisms of verbalization of linguistic consciousness that are impelled by extralinguistic factors and realized with a vivid change of connotation (sometimes from zero) to strongly pejorative. The article emphasizes that the accelerated pace of the appearance of lexical innovations is dictated by the emotional state of native speakers. Therefore the mental basis of nomination is not limited to the laws and extralinguistic reasons for language development and is a category not only of ethnolinguistics but also of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, because it is formed through the prism of the cognition of an individual speaker and the whole society. Groups of innovations were identified and analyzed for the indication of the following lexical fields: „country”, „military”, „mobilized”, „politician”, „propagandist”, „weapons”, „attitude to the war”. The evident fact of the dynamics of the status and functions of the Ukrainian language lexical innovations in the conditions of the current Russian-Ukrainian war has been proven. The basis of their emergence has been determined, and the norm, the practice of using innovations, and the ways of their appearance have been outlined.