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War in Ukraine

A war in Europe without precedent since the collapse of Yugoslavia in the late 20th century, stemming from the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, has engendered huge loss of life and human suffering, as well as massive displacement inside and outside the country. Yet Ukraine’s resistance proved much mightier than the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, expected, failing in a February Blitzkrieg on Kyiv. Meanwhile, the rest of Europe has largely rallied round, accepting large numbers of refugees—rather more hospitably than others with black and brown skins. And Putin has found his attempts to drive wedges among European states failing too, outside of Hungary and Serbia.

Why Russia?

Kremlin,misinformation,Ukraine Ukraine: the Kremlin’s misinformationStefan Wolff
Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
Putin,KGB,FSB,siloviki,totalitarianism The origins of Putin’s totalitarianismNina L Khrushcheva
Russians,support,war,Ukraine Why do Russians support the war against Ukraine?Svetlana Erpyleva
Putin,Russia,Ukraine Putin’s war will destroy RussiaNina L Khrushcheva
Russians,support,war,Ukraine What do ordinary Russians really think about the war?Kseniya Kizlova and Pippa Norris
Putin,Yeltsin,Russia,shock therapy From shock therapy to Putin’s warKatharina Pistor
Putin,invasion,Ukraine,Russia Ordinary Russians don’t want this warIlya Matveev and Ilya Budraitskis
Putin,Ukraine,Russia Ukraine and the future of EuropeJoschka Fischer
putin,muzhik,ukraine,russia Russia: it’s raining men without umbrellasPaul Emtsev

Why would the Russian president launch such an attack in 2022? While Putin has recalled the cold war of which he was a part as a KGB agent in the former East Germany by claiming his opponent is ‘the west’—and, going back further to the ‘great patriotic war’, adding ‘Nazis’ in government in Kyiv—the unilateral attack may stem ultimately from Ukraine’s Maidan revolution of 2013-14, throwing out not only the pro-Russian president of the time, Viktor Yanukovych, but also the idea of a ‘Eurasian’ union with Russia as an alternative to a partnership agreement with the European Union. This was followed then by the occupation of Crimea and Russian support for secessionist forces in Donetsk and Luhansk.

The impact in Ukraine

women soldiers,Ukraine Ukraine war: attitudes changing to women soldiersJennifer Mathers and Anna Kvit
Intercultural Cities,Ukraine,Melitopol,Lutsk,Odesa,Vinnytsia,Pavlohrad,Sumy,inter-community,peace,prayers Ukraine: sustaining inter-community tiesKseniya Rubicondo
Ukraine,child,children,trauma War’s impact on Ukraine’s child-focused workersGabriella Jóźwiak
labour law,ukraine,trade unions,social dialogue,ILO,International Labour Organization Ukraine could abandon key labour principleThomas Rowley and Serhiy Guz
Ukraine,workers' rights,laws,labour,protection,liberalisation,zero hours Ukraine to pass laws wrecking workers’ rightsThomas Rowley and Serhiy Guz
trafficking,Ukraine,women,sexual Ukraine re-emphasises need to combat human traffickingFrances Fitzgerald
refugees,Ukraine,temporary protection Ukraine’s refugees: hospitality requiredLukasz Dziedzic

The war has visited huge traumas on the population of Ukraine, devastating major cities through the indiscriminate attacks familiar from Russia’s involvement in the war in Syria. It has broken up families, with adult men being recruited to the fighting forces and women forced to leave home or even the country, taking children with them, fleeing from attack. There is disturbing evidence that the government in Kyiv has used the war to effect strong legislative assaults on labour rights, driven by post-Soviet anti-collectivist prejudice and very much out of synchrony with the aspiration to join the EU. Yet there is also inspiration to be taken from the efforts of the Intercultural Cities network in Ukraine to sustain inter-community integration.

Ending the war

European civil war,iron curtain,NATO,Ukraine,Gorbachev The new European civil warGuido Montani
Putin,Russian culture,Ukraine Don’t cancel Russian cultureNina L Khrushcheva
North Atlantic Treaty Organization,NATO,Ukraine The Ukraine war and NATO’s renewed credibilityPaul Rogers
Russia,Putin,assets,oligarchs Seizing the assets of Russian oligarchsBranko Milanovic
NATO,Russia,Putin Ukraine, NATO and a ZeitenwendePaul Mason
sanctions,Russia,Putin,Ukraine Sanctions on Russia: the next phaseClaes-Mikael Ståhl
dependence on Russia,Russian fossil fuel,Europe,energy independence To quit Russian gas and oil, a green-transition jubileeRasmus Øjvind Nielsen
democratic backsliders,attacks on democracy,Ukraine,Putin The global struggle for democracy is in UkraineSusan Stokes
Ukraine,Putin,human rights, Russia The Ukraine crisis: how to respond?Mary Kaldor

The superiority of Ukraine’s forces, driven by much higher morale than their Russian counterparts, allied to support with equipment from its allies in Europe and the United States, has steadily driven Russia back to the east of the Dnieper river. While he had threatened use of nuclear weapons in situ, as with Georgia and Moldova Putin seems now to be having to settle for an exclave which would undermine the European aspirations of all three countries, now embraced by the EU.

The EU and Ukraine

reality check,EU foreign policy,Russia Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: a reality check for the EUHeidi Mauer, Richard Whitman and Nicholas Wright
refugee fatigue,Ukrainian refugees,Ukraine,Russia Ukraine: the risk of ‘refugee fatigue’Joanna Hosa and Gabrielė Valodskaitė
EU candidate,EU candidacy,Ukraine,Balkans Ukraine’s EU candidate status—not just symbolicMarie-Eve Bélanger
green transition,just transition,fossil fuel,energy transition,Ukraine,Russia Ukraine and the geopolitics of the energy transitionBéla Galgóczi and Paolo Tomassetti
defence,europe,spending Ukraine and Europe’s defence spendingValerio Alfonso Bruno and Adriano Cozzolino
LNG,EIB,liquefied natural gas,European Investment Bank Ukraine is no reason to invest in gasXavier Sol
geopolitical,Strategic Compass,strategic autonomy Has the war in Ukraine made the EU a geopolitical actor?Nicoletta Pirozzi
Russia,Putin,Ukraine,containment,social democrats,social democracy,Steinmeier A new era of containment?Robert Misik
food security,ukraine,intensive farming,industrial agriculture,Farm to Fork Ukraine underlines urgency of EU green food goalsIsabel Paliotta and Célia Nyssens
Ukraine's EU membership,eu accession Ukraine’s EU membership: still some way offDorina Baltag

So where does all this leave the EU? The war has reinvigorated the case for (further) eastern enlargement, though fast-tracking Ukraine and to an extent Georgia and Moldova would lead many in the western Balkans to baulk at the double standard applied. It has also accelerated the case for rapid ecological transition, to end dependence on Russian fossil fuels and squeeze the regime in Moscow economically. And it has boosted the case for Europe to exercise ‘strategic autonomy’ to foster global goals—from world peace to saving the planet—increasingly dependent on its leadership for their ever-more-urgent delivery.
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