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Using only a notebook and pencil, the author describes a living space shrinking day by day, the first days of the war in a basement, the sudden evacuation from Kharkiv, and the experience of being a war refugee. At the same time, this illustrated war diary is an affective record of family history.
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“The creation of art in the conditions and reality of an ongoing war is a process of endless limitations and prohibitions. Instead of dealing with frustrating reality, limitations or losses I wish focus on opportunities. I would like to ponder on how our voice sounds today, how it ‘allows itself’ to be heard abroad, how we can discover it within ourselves, and what we can fall back on. At present, the role played by art has narrowed down to a healing and propaganda function, a verbalisation and record of horror, and a re-evaluation of the idea of humanism. The theatre is always the space of memory and the territory of experiences. The point of departure for my reflections consisted of taking a close look at political, historical or local reminiscences, the experiences of Ukrainian female artists within the context of an ongoing war.”
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This abridged chapter from the book Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First Century Ukraine provides a historical and theoretical context for the arts in Ukraine concerning concepts of freedom of expression, in particular among generations who emerged in the 2000s and the years leading to 2022. The author considers “intergenerational” transmissions of memory of twentieth-century wars and revolutions, in particular in those cases when the great “myths” of the Soviet past are challenged and reinvented in aesthetic experiments conducted within the post-revolutionary (post-Maidan 2013) public sphere, aimed at exposing and overturning antidemocratic rule, systematic corruption, and censorship in recent decades.
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine could inaugurate the painful process of decolonizing Russia. Much depends on whether Russian intellectuals let go of the ideals of the momentous Russian people and the friendship of “brotherly” nations. This requires accepting the sovereignty and equal- ity of other countries and cultures and admitting responsibility for the Soviet genocidal colonial past. Decolonizing Russian political discourse and culture will debunk the myth of Russian imperial innocence and victimhood and restore the dignity of the colonized.
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“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the continent”. Do those famous words spoken by Winston Churchill in 1946, which for years confirmed the simple dichotomy of Europe, still hold true? Did the breakthrough of 1989 really change the semantics of the concepts of East and West? In recent years, the metaphor of the “new Iron Curtain” has been reappearing more and more often. The still present inferiority complex of the periphery, populist governments based on nationalist and anti-European slogans, and, finally, the war in Ukraine and mass migrations strongly influence the creation of new divisions, but also provide an opportunity to create a new balance of power and a community far from right-wing populism and, at the same time, devoid of Western-centric hegemony. Today, the question of new European solidarity also becomes a question about the possibility of a new world and the values on which it is to be based”. A record of a debate held at the Powszechny Theatre as part of the Forum of the Future of Culture 2023.
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Explaining the achievements on the ground during war times, in the full-scale, high-intensity and long-term war of aggression launched by Russia in Ukraine has led us to studying the conundrum formed by resilience, societal security and the intangibles of war. The layered resilience that NATO has embraced as concept is not enough. The difference between success and failure in the Russian war and did it – the of aggression in Ukraine has come from the intangibles of the war, difficult to put under nominal indicators, but more suitable to be evaluated under qualitative criteria. That has made the difference between the effectiveness of both parties in war, together with Ukraine’s societal resilience that includes both the basic indicators of societal security and an important part of the intangibles of war. We are very much aware, at the same time, that numbers do matter, and that weapons, manpower and will to fight have no alternative to grant support for any long- term war.
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In recent years, Russia has gradually lost influence in peripheral states that traditionally used to gravitate around Moscow. China’s significant investments in infrastructure development and trade with Central Asian states have isolated Russia, causing it to lose its importance and guiding role in the region. At the same time, Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine has led to a complete breakdown in Russian-European relations and increased cohesion among Western nations. Although Russia has lost its role as the world’s second-largest power to China, Sino-Russian relations remain a vital issue in regional and international dynamics due to the conjunctural alliance designed to shake the leading role of the US in the global security architecture. The struggle between the West and Russia creates imbalances throughout the international system, and the current World Order seems more disrupted than ever in the last 30 years.
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The cyber dimension has played an important part during the conflict in Ukraine, but the cyber activities have not had the span many military experts expected. Nevertheless, it is obvious this dimension is highly used by both sides of the conflict, and, moreover, this dimension has been active not only during the entire length of the conflict begun in 2014, but also before the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The increase in such activities before the start of the invasion in 2022 has done nothing else but to underline the importance of the cyber domain for future conflicts, air force security being a continuous challenge, considering that these forces are among the first ones to have been used in conflict by both Russia and Ukraine. The conflict in Ukraine has shown once more that the cyber dimension is and must be taken into consideration in each and every stage to ensure national security, before, during and after the conventional conflict, but it must not be overestimated in respect to the desired effects and those that can be achieved.
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In the Russian-Ukrainian war, there was a change in the weight of the use of some weapons in military actions. The very intensive use of ground artillery is observed. It is estimated that about 70% of Ukrainian military casualties are caused by Russian artillery fire, which is an extraordinary component of the armed forces. The Institute of Strategic Studies (IRUSI) in London notes the accuracy, but especially the short reaction time (up to three minutes) of this weapon. For the Ukrainians, the JAVELIN anti-tank missile and the highly accurate HIMARS systems (error of only 10m from the target) were very effective in hitting some infrastructure elements and warehouses of ammunition and logistical materials. As a result, the Russians had to move some of their warehouses deeper. A significant share is the drones used intensively by both sides, mainly the BAYRAKTAR (Turkish origin) by the Ukrainians and the SHAHED (Iranian origin) by the Russians.
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The author of this article points to war as an age-old method of politics. A forgotten space for the realisation of war conflicts is the clash of civilisations, which is occurring on a large scale in the present day. The conflict between the USA and China (for the time being economic), between Russia and Ukraine, or at the interface between the Western world and Islamic fundamentalism has a strong civilisational basis. The West's biggest problem is that, by rejecting its classical cultural foundations, it has introduced enormous self-destruction into its own social life, losing its orientation in the world and its ability to defend itself.
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The aim was to understand the conditions and little-known processes influencing the nationality policy of Ukraine. Learning about the order of socio-cultural development in Ukraine, where there are national minorities (their legal status and civic attitude were important). Ukraine's nationality policy is shaped and implemented in an extremely complex political situation. In this case, the prevailing socio-political realities influence the formation of inter-ethnic relations and the direction of development of the Ukrainian state in the context of nationality policy. The temporal scope covered the years 2000–2022. Studying the problem over a longer period of time allows us to determine the dynamics and ongoing changes in Ukraine's nationality policy. State documents regarding ensuring the protection of national minority rights in accordance with international standards are analyzed. It is worth noting that the activities of the ethnic communities influence the nature and content of programs and laws adopted by the state authorities. Separatist tendencies are treated as the main threat to the integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. Along with this, mechanisms have been identified to prevent separatism in the context of influence from the international environment. It is worth emphasizing that a change in the nationality and language structure causes a change in consciousness by imposing different values and national interests that are beneficial to other ethnic groups. The national identity of Ukrainians has been a problematic phenomenon for a long time. An important premise was to indicate the main convergent goals and interests of Ukrainians and national minorities. The national attitude of Ukrainians was constantly changing as a result of external influences, including the Russian-Ukrainian war, but it contained unchanging manifestations rooted in historical consciousness – love for the Homeland, the spirit of unity, based on historical achievements and civic values.
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Демократія не гарантує мир, але авторитаризм неминуче породжує насильство, спершу проти співгромадян, а потім це насильство виходить за межі опанованої цим режимом країни. Сучасна історія росії2 , серед багатьох інших прикладів, це вповні підтверджує і унаочнює. Після не надто вдалих спроб демонтажу залишків радянської тоталітарної системи, з приходом до влади В. Путіна в росії розпочалася досить швидка еволюцію від гібридної, а саме фасадної демократії до авторитаризму. Спершу президент цієї країни висунув неймовірну за своїх змістом концепцію “керованої демократії”, тим самим поставивши себе і свою владу і над політичною системою і над країною в цілому. Опозиція в росії виявилася розколотою і в переважній більшості її гравців справді керованою, а російське суспільство проковтнуло цю пропозицію до встановлення нового типу авторитаризму в країні. У першому десятиріччі нового, ХХІ сторіччя на роль провідного концепту вийшла ідея “суверенної демократії”, де були химерно поєднані принципово різні положення про росію як суверенну державу і її претензії на особливий від усього іншого людства шлях до оригінальної, ніким не контрольованої і нікому не підзвітної демократії. Декларуючи повноту своєї незалежності від зовнішнього світу та “вказівок Заходу”, російська еліта насправді стверджувала необмеженість своєї монополізації природних, демографічних, економічних та всіх інших ресурсів країни.
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The subject of the paper is the relationship between Putin's justification of the war in Ukraine, as well as his foreign policy and geopolitical views, with the geopolitical thought of Russian philosopher Alexandr Dugin. Since the beginning of the "special military operation" in February 2022 there has been a surge in interest for understanding Dugin's geopolitical views and the Russian world-historical mission, his Eurasianism, because of which the already controversial "Putin's brain" has become widely read in the West. While the parallels between Dugin's claims and Putin's, as well as Kremlin-issued statements in general, is staggering, the paper aims to show their ideological connections, rather than any possible personal relations between them. The goal of the paper is philosophical, and consists of highlighting the moral-eschatological characteristics of Dugin's geopolitical thought and his critique of the West, as well as the complementary characteristics of Putin's justification of the war in Ukraine. Subsequently, the paper offers their critique in light of the relationship between Dugin's geopolitical and eschatological determinism on the one hand, and on the other, his neglect of the freedom of action and decision making which are precluded by his determinism, but are necessary conditions for his moral critique of the West.
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This article questions to what extent are the conditions ripe for the decline of the US dollar as a hegemonic currency. The issue at hand has gained additional salience after the imposition of unprecedented financial sanctions against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. Contrary to numerous commentaries predicting the erosion of US dollar, this research relies on the concept of structural power which outlines reasons for the continued US dollar hegemony atop the global monetary hierarchy. US dollar hegemony is still stable due to continued trust in the merit of US security guarantees on behalf of US formal allies and security partners. Furthermore, US dollar hegemony is also stable due to above average profitability of the US corporate sector, as well as above average US GDP growth rates relative to the rest of the world. Simultaneously, deeply institutionalised export-led growth models of surplus states create an obstacle to the internationalisation of their respective currencies. On the demand side, US dollar does not show worrying signs of vulnerability, while on the supply side there is still absence of strong and organised competitors willing to carry the burden of internationalisation.
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This report examines the involvement of the population of the occupied territories of Ukraine of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the invasion of the territory of Ukraine in 2022 by the armed forces of the Russian Federation. It focuses on the body of evidence for the forced mobilization of the student youth population in these two regions in the lead up to invasion and assesses the implications of this mobilization effort.
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The war that Russia started against Ukraine in 2022 shook the whole world. However, it is worth noting that the conflict has been going on since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and supported terrorist groups in eastern Ukraine. The study of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is relevant for several reasons. Firstly, it is an acute political problem that affects the state of affairs in the region and relations between the two states. It not only threatens the stability in Europe, but also threatens to destroy the entire modern system of international law. Secondly, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has deep historical roots that need to be understood in order to find ways to resolve it. Studying the history and culture of these two nations, as well as their relationship, can help us understand the causes of the conflict and how to hold Russia accountable. Thirdly, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is an example of the relationship between two states with different political, economic, and cultural systems. The study of the conflict can help to better understand these systems and their interactions. The study of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is a relevant and important task for politicians, scholars, and the public, as it can help find ways to achieve Ukraine’s victory, punish Russia, establish stability in the region, and prevent future conflicts. The purpose of the article is to analyze the historical retrospective of the development of Russian-Ukrainian relations and Russia’s oppression of the Ukrainian people. In addition, the author examines the current preconditions of the conflict. The article also reveals the reaction of the international community to the current conflict and all the illegal acts committed by Russia. The article also aims to suggest ways to overcome the civilizational conflict between the countries.
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2014 was a black year for European security. And as we enter 2015, the terrorist attacks in Paris were a stark reminder of the threats and challenges we face. But we also saw millions standing up for our values and our open societies.
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In this article the authors look at Russia’s information influence activities in the context of the first two years of the Russian military invasion in Ukraine (2022– 2023). The specific focus of this study is on analysing some examples of Russian strategic narratives created and disseminated by the Russian Federation, pro-¬Russian media outlets and social media channels (e.g. Telegram) in 2022–2023, targeting Western audiences, including examples of Russian influence activities targeting Estonian, Ukrainian and more generally Western audiences.
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Review of: Kathryn E. Stoner, Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New World Order (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), xix+317 pp.
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Ukraine crisis is complex and it could trigger a new cold war between Russia, on the one hand, and NATO and the EU, on the other hand. The management of the crisis might raise doubts about the UN credibility and authority to uphold international security. The US, Russia and the EU try to de-escalate the Ukraine crisis because of the high risk of spreading violence in Eastern Ukraine. According to the author, the UN has limited functionality and relevance in security issues as it depends on the interests of the great powers that have the right of veto over any decision that disadvantages them.
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