The Toxic Spell of ‘Imperial knowledge’ and Challenges of Decolonization (Synopsis) (2024)

Eurasian World, 2022

In the spring of 2021, particularly in March and April, international news agencies began reporting Russian military build-up along Ukraine's borders and in the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Although the war rhetoric in news agencies relatively softened over the summer, it has begun to escalate once again starting in October 2021 which led to Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine on 24 February 2022. This article seeks to answer the following questions: Why did Russia decide to invade Ukraine despite its upper hand in the peace negotiations with Kyiv? What is Russia’s endgame in Ukraine? Should we focus on relations between Russia and the United States, bypassing Ukraine, to find out a plausible explanation for the war? To what extent do Putin’s personal desires play a role in escalating tensions?

On War: Essays about the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict from a Global Perspective, 2023

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has mobilized different arguments to justify his bellicose stance, mainly the pursuit of NATO containment, the protection of ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking minorities, and the "denazification" of Ukraine. In this article I analyze the contradictions and inconsistencies in these three arguments. Firstly, I show that, although Russian elites had legitimate considerations to contest NATO enlargement during the post-Cold War era, there is no evidence that Putin’s military aggression was motivated by this issue: as previously expected, the invasion has further strengthened the alliance, provided it with a legitimate raison d'être, and contributed to an even more intense military presence near Russian borders; the European balance of power is now much more favorable to NATO than before the conflict. Secondly regarding the humanitarian intentions of protecting the Russian-speaking communities in Eastern Ukraine, the Russian invasion has so far led to the opposite result: ten months of war caused more civilian deaths than eight years of war in Donbas, and the Russian-speaking population has been exactly the most affected victim. Finally, with regard to the "fight against Nazism", although in Ukraine there are ultranationalist groups, there is no evidence that such groups currently count on significant political influence and broad support in society; furthermore, the Russian authorities themselves have ties to similar groups. The "denazification" narrative represents a strategy of demonizing the opponent, mobilized to legitimize the dismemberment and extinguishing of Ukraine as a state and nation. The current war has laid bare the Kremlin's double standard politics: civilian deaths resulting from attempts by Ukraine to regain control of its territory are evidence of "genocide"; while the civilian deaths resulting from the Russian invasion are just the "side effects" of a legitimate fight against "Nazis" and NATO.

The Washington Quarterly, 2023

KYIV RYSING BOOK, 2022

The answers to the interviews are presented in the original. In case the text of the answer has been translated into another language, this translation has been previously agreed upon with the interviewer. KYIV RYSING is a pro-bono project and does not incline to any political, ideological or religious orientation. KYIV RYSING it is the only comprehensive book covering evolutionary milestones in the history of Ukraine, tying its past to its present-day and providing an outlook on postwar Ukraine based on verified data, proven research methodology, nationwide poll results, and numerous interviews with opinion leaders from Ukraine and overseas. Being rich in solid facts and reliable data, KYIV RYSING provides an independent and realistic 'made in Ukraine' view, as well as stable, clear, and consistent insights on the current developments in Ukraine and what needs to be done to overcome the consequences of the war and seize unlocked opportunities.

The Churches and the War: Religions, Religious Diplomacy, and Russia's Agression Against Ukraine. , 2024

My paper tells what Russian political theologies contributed to the neocolonial dehumanizing ideology of Russky mir/Ruscism/Christian Fascism. These political theologies include Moscow as the Third Rome, the Cult of Stalin as a God-given leader, Sergianism, the ultranationalist theology of the metropolitan Ioann (Snychev), justification of the war against Ukraine as a divine act of cleansing violence, and other genocidal ideas. The volume includes the papers presented at the "Church Diplomacy and the Religious Dimension of the Russian-Ukrainian War" conference held in Lviv, Ukraine on June 29-30, 2023. The conference was part of the "Standing in Solidarity" (2022-2024) partnership between the University of Notre Dame and the Ukrainian Catholic University. The goal of this publication is to put the ongoing military conflict into the context of the religious past and present in both Ukraine and Russia, thus contributing to a theologically informed understanding of the current situation and its global effect. The papers presented in this volume also explore religious diplomacy and the ways it can play a positive role for the sake of ending the war with a just peace, as well as healing the conflict that threatens to destroy the international order. The Churches and the War: Religion, Religious Diplomacy, and Russia's Aggression against Ukraine / за ред. Ю. Авакумова, О. Турія. Львів: Видавництво УКУ 2024.-328 с.

Cheering and Jeering on the Escalator to Hell: One Year of UK Media Coverage on the War in Ukraine, 2023

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.

Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional (RBPI), 2023

The following paper aims to unveil the reasons behind the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Based on the hypothesis that Moscow’s decision was the result of the combination of strategic and ideational drivers, the study demonstrates how President Vladimir Putin’s political project has: (i) deepened Russia’s rivalry towards the West, strengthening the threat posed by NATO’s expansion; (ii) and highlighted the role of memory in the state’s identity, putting Ukraine in a privileged position in the Kremlin’s political agenda.

How Russia went to war

Based on information from open sources and from interviews conducted on a non-attributable basis, this report studies Russia’s political, informational, military, and economic preparations for attacking and subduing Ukraine. It further examines Russia’s preparations vis-à-vis the West, its attempts to manipulate and weaken Ukraine before the full-scale invasion, as well as Chinese-Russian relations.

Global Journal of Business Research, 2023

This paper critiques the de facto equation of Europeanization with submission to U.S. hegemony. It traces the choices that allowed the EU to be equated as one of side of the same coin with NATO. France's 2009 rejoining the NATO command structure encouraged this perception. It comports with the claim that US liberal hegemony made the European integration process feasible. It highlights the consequences for conflict resolution of the Europeanization process being equated with attitudinal orientation towards accepting U.S. hegemony. Ukraine is a case study of this process on the level of indirect conflict between Moscow and Washington each seeking to contain each other. European integration's focus on developing vested economic and bureaucratic interests has tied it to U.S. hegemony. It facilitated the institutionalization of anti-Moscow influence tendencies in European integration. The paper adopts a process tracing methodological approach with a focus on the Cold War and the prevailing views that have emerged around it. The institutionalization of Euro-Atlantic integration includes the internalization of the assumption that the USSR, and later Russia, were imperialist aggressors. The US-led Euro-Atlantic community successfully, and relatively peacefully, contained it. Moscow's prevailing view does not share this problematic analysis regarding post-1945 Soviet foreign policy motivation.

The Ukrainian Quarterly. A Journal of Ukrainian and International Affairs., 2023

The 22 countries of the Arab world, with a growing population of morethan 453 million people, represent a significant geopolitical force, with aGDP of USD 3.56 trillion in 2022 (3.5 percent of world’s GDP, according to the World Bank). The economic recession of recent volatile years,exacerbated by the COVID black swan, has only worsened in the region since the outbreak of russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, dashing any hope of a long-awaited recovery. Energy and food price spikes, supply chain disruptions, social unrest, and other repercussions of russia’s aggressive international behavior are sharply felt in the Arab world.

Soziale Systeme, 2023

This paper aims to tentatively analyze how Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has changed Ukrainian and Russian societies. It looks at the social organization of war, at how Ukraine and Russia adapt and change under wartime conditions. Combining political science and sociological approaches, we interpret the war under organizational and communicative aspects in the context of opposite political regimes: dictatorial autocracy in Russia versus democracy in Ukraine. Opposite regimes imply opposite meanings and objectives of war, of warfare and the military. Big differences exist regarding organizing and mobilizing resources and support for the war-with considerable advantages for a dictatorship such as Russia controlling its societal space by the means of repression and propaganda. Societies at war need to be distinguished from an organized and highly militarized war society such as Russia which has imposed on its neighbor military, organizational and ideological constraints to which Ukraine must respond with its own militarization and organization of war and warfare. The social organization of war is understood as a complex multi-layered interplay of various institutional actors and spheres (the state, the military, NGOs, business, media, public and private spheres, etc.). Military mobilization in both societies also has different organizational and communicative effects as well as various, often contrasting, political, cultural and societal implications.

The planned blitzkrieg, however, failed because of Ukraine's surprising resilience, the will of the Ukrainian leadership to defend the country against the Russian aggression, the courageous resistance of the Ukrainian population against the Russian invaders-and the bravery of the Ukrainian soldiers.

Східноєвропейський історичний вісник

рецензія на книгу: ПЕРЕЛОМ: Війна Росії проти України у часових пластах і просторах минувшини. Діалоги з істориками. Відпов. ред. Валерій Смолій; упоряд.: Геннадій Боряк, Олексій Ясь, Світлана Блащук. Київ: НАН України. Ін-тут історії України, 2023. Книга 3. 844 с.; іл

Security. Theory and Practice, 2023

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has led to an increased interest in knowledge about warfare. The public debate about this war has become a test for the expertise skills of numerous scholars and government analysts. Within a few months, a new epistemic community emerged, which began to create a security discourse around the problems of theRussian-Ukrainian war. The article tries to explain the key terms used in this discourse and to indicate what classical texts in the field of international relations say about the causes and course of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In order to compare theory with practice, the author analysed several hundred expert publications on the war and conducted a total of several dozen interviews and surveys in 2022 in the Polish expert community. This text is therefore based on both a theoretical analysis and an insight into the reasoning of the epistemic community of experts educated in the field of security studies.

Territory, Politics, Governance, 2024

Russia's war with Ukraine is reshaping Russia's geopolitical orientation and transforming the ways the country relates to its immediate neighbours. In this article, rather than undertaking a geopolitical analysis of the consequences inside Russia of the ongoing war in Ukraine, we look at public discourse as one aspect of political activity. We describe how processes of a holistic kind are depicted in metaphors and how new spatial metaphors are emerging. The war has pushed earlier somatic and emotion-laden state-generated images into coexistence with new tropes of centripetal convergence around the President and loyalty to the power vertical. We also bring to attention other kinds of images: the downbeat metaphors and historical analogies with which people describe Russia's changing actuality, and the new spatial-territorial images produced by ethnic groups who are looking at Russia from alternative, non-central and sometimes conflictual perspectives. Unlike the national hom*ogenisation that has developed from Xi Jinping's image of 'China's dream', Russia remains a consciously 'imperial', multiethnic and economically diverse country. We suggest that examining the influential metaphors by which it is imagined, both the holistic and the diverse, incongruous or splintered, is one way to capture the multiplicity of a country at war and in flux.

My article p. 189 - 196 The Ukrainian Revolution 1971 - 21. Populist and statesmen

Ethics in Progress, 2023

The article deals with the causes of Russia’s war on Ukraine, which is based on political and geopolitical interests, economic and military strategies, ambitions of individual political leaders, and mentality factors. The ontological basis of the war is the historically formed fundamental difference between the spiritual world, mentality traits of Ukrainians and Russians, which formed under the influence of a particular culture, with its ethnic, value and worldview coordinates, and under the influence of ideologies that determined the features of social and political life at different historical times. A strong spiritual system is created in the social and cultural space of the state, which preserves its values from generation to generation in the culture, forming a stable mentality and enduring attitudes. Their conceptual comprehension expands the context of cause-and-effect connections, helps to understand the situation more deeply and to choose optimal effective mechanisms for gradually successfully resolving the complex geopolitical situation that threatens the whole world.

Analysis of Current Trends in Antisemitism - ACTA

This paper explores and analises aspects of Antisimetism and the Jewish theme in the Russian, Belarusian and Ukraninan propaganda during the first seven months of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

JEBAT JOURNAL , 2024

The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine that began in 2022 has reached diverse effects and reasons in the system. But Russia deems Ukraine within her sphere of influence and has been infuriated at Ukraine's nearness with the West and her desire to join NATO or the EU. The main purpose of this article is to discuss the multiple effects of the conflict on the global powers and explain how states' national interests and goals have driven their responses in the foreign policy. The main driving point of this article is to focus on the several reasons and effects of Ukraine war that shakes the balance between the global powers in the world and how it disturbs the already existing order. This article will benefit from the perspectives of realism theory when deciphering the causes of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the regional and global implications of this conflict in various ways. To reveal the increasing power race within the system, to be able to see the changing balances within the framework of the concept of national interest and to see the impact of the war within the system, the theory of neorealism has been included in the study. This article will focus on three levels of analysis such as individual, state, and systemic in examining the main driving forces behind of Russia and Ukraine conflict. This war was not only occurred between Russia and Ukraine, it has had also created a huge impact on the other regions or international organizations in a different area. Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia remains the most dangerous, immediate, and long-term threat to the Euro-Atlantic community and rules-based world order. During this study, it will focus on the descriptive theory by using comparison methods and techniques.

The War in Ukraine AND ITS IMPACT ON GLOBAL POLITICS AND SECURITY, 2023

THE WINTER OF RUSSIA’S DISCONTENT: Russia’s Futures from Within and Without, 2023

Russia is a country with abundant sources of energy. Its economy is reliant on the oil and gas industry, which provides revenue for many non-energy sectors such as equipment manufacturing, field services, and transportation. In the past decade, Russia has made significant contributions to the economic development of its energy industry. In theory, the current version of Russia’s “Energy Strategy Through 2035” is based on a comprehensive analysis of the current state of the energy sector. In practice, however, these trends represent a shift from dependence to addiction. However, Russia’s continued reliance on its oil and gas industry and disregard for the consequences of its actions will ultimately harm the country’s economic development.

Russian Analytical Digest #277, 2022

Since the Second World War, Germany has pursued a pacifist foreign policy, driven by the ideas of nonviolence and dialog, with a view to promoting peace on the European continent. This is especially true regarding German policy toward Russia, where the German position is reinforced by a sense of historical guilt and responsibility on the one hand and business interests on the other.This moment in history, when Russia is demanding a revision of the Euro-Atlantic security architecture, threatening Ukraine by force, is a test for Germany of whether it has actually learned the lessons of the past and can play a leading and uniting role in the European Union. This peculiar German mixture of pacifism, antiAmericanism, (selective) historical guilt and desire for dialog with Russia no matter how autocratic, can work against German intentions. The German position is all the more outstanding since it stands in stark contrast to those of the US, Great Britain and other Ukraine allies.

Central European Journal of International and Security Studies, 2023

The article conducts a corpus study of official reports and papers from the Strategic Studies Institutes of the United States, NATO, the European Union, Ukraine, and Russia up to and including 2014 to determine how Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine was represented and how postponed it proved to be. The US, EU, and NATO were very cautious and slow in establishing relations with Ukraine, either because they considered its integration with Russia very likely or because they did not want to destroy lucrative economic relations with Russia given the unstable and inconsistent foreign policy. The US, EU, and NATO were well aware of Ukraine's vulnerabilities and had been documenting various forms of Russian pressure on Ukraine since the 1990s (the preparatory phase of hybrid war) as well as the high likelihood of Russian military aggression since that time. The attack phase was expected to begin as early as 1994. Therefore, based on the institutes’ predictions, the Russia’s war against Ukraine was unavoidable, yet has been postponed for at least 20 years.

Paper presented at the 55th Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Philadelphia, PA, December 2, 2023., 2023

For the third time in history Ukraine has become a battlefield in the geopolitical struggle between Russia and the West. While Woodrow Wilson made "the world safe for democracy," his principle of self-determination did not apply to Ukrainians; thus, Ukraine's independence was sacrificed for the sake of "Russian unity." The consequences were the Red Terror and Lenin's famine of 1921-1923 in Ukraine that drowned in blood its national liberation movement. Lenin's disciple, Joseph Stalin, consolidated the totalitarian system and implemented his predecessor's policy toward Ukraine that led to physical, biological, and cultural genocide against the largest non-Russian captive nation. Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration not only did nothing, but also never acknowledged publicly Stalin's crimes. American journalists along with politicians participated, albeit indirectly, in the Holodomor denial. The rehabilitation of Stalinism in Russia, revision of the past, and Holodomor denial have led to further escalation of violence on the eve of the ninetieth anniversary of the crime. President Joseph Biden has called Russia's actions in Ukraine a genocide. The next step is to draw a parallel to the Holodomor and respond to that denial by bringing the perpetrators of today's genocide before an international tribunal to restore the rule of law and justice.

CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research - Zenodo, 2022

Balkan Social Science Review, 2024

This research uses a comparative case study approach to explore the Israeli-Palestinian and Ukrainian-Russian conflicts within the framework of the Security Dilemma. It employs primary and secondary sources. The study analyzes each conflict individually while allowing for meaningful comparisons between them to identify patterns in each case. The research challenges the traditional dichotomy between offensive and defensive realism by proposing that state behavior is influenced by an interplay between both paradigms based on strategic calculations. States may engage in offensive behavior when advantageous or adopt defensive strategies out of necessity. This paper offers insights into these dynamics, thereby generating new perspectives in political science debates.

This dissertation explores the intricate dynamics of Russia's national identity construction during the Russo-Ukraine war, with a particular focus on the role played by President Vladimir Putin. The conflict, initiated by Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, has led to significant loss of life and raised questions about Russia's national identity in the context of an irredentist mission and a heteronormative political system. The study employs critical discourse analysis from a queer securitisation perspective to deconstruct the ways Putin has framed Russia's national identity. The findings reveal a complex interplay between Russia's irredentist mission to regain Ukraine and its promotion of a heteronormative image through the use of thematic and discursive strategy. Putin's rhetoric emerges as a critical tool in shaping and projecting Russia's national identity, both domestically and internationally. This research contributes to our understanding of the intersection of political power, national identity, and gender securitisation politics in the context of contemporary conflict.

The Conference on Russia Papers 2023, 2023

The Black Sea is a strategically important connectivity hub in the wider region and beyond. This paper examines the interests and priorities of the key stakeholders in the new geopolitical landscape, focusing on areas such as military security, strategic connectivity, and the use of non-military means of power to promote peace and stability. The paper adopts a conceptual approach based on the three pillars of future Euro-Atlantic security architecture, which are closely linked to the security context of the Black Sea. It is crucial for the future that these stakeholders work together to address the challenges and opportunities in this region.

Foreign Affairs , 2023

Why Moscow Wants to Weaken NATO in Ukraine, Not Just Win Battles

Etikk i praksis - Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics

A few public actions prepared the way for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the purpose of which was to define a special military operation as forced, necessary and inevitable. The use of armed force against Ukraine was discussed during those public events. The Russian authorities applied many arguments, and a great deal of attention was paid to the moral justification of war. In this article, I consistently analyze three problems: why did Russian officials use moral language to justify the war, what arguments did they use, and would these arguments retain their effect in the long term. I will examine several addresses made by the President of Russia and the Russian Federation Security Council meeting materials to address these questions. I conclude that Putin's lack of legitimacy forced him to justify the war in moral terms, and the peculiarities of Russian moral discourse allowed him to do that. However, even if this strategy was effective to a certain extent at the beginning o...

THE JOURNAL OF SLAVIC MILITARY STUDIES, 2022

This research note explores the place of Nazism and historical genocide in early-twentieth century Ukraine and the ways in which the evaluation of these historical processes inform current Ukrainian politics. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022 was preceded by two speeches by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, in which he promised to ‘denazify’Ukraine. He further stated that genocide was being committed against the (predominantly Russian-speaking) people of eastern Ukraine, something which his forces were to bring to an immediate halt. The speeches drew on a number of historical parallels – mainly from Ukraine’s Nazi occupation during the Second World War – in an attempt to justify the decision to occupy Ukraine. The language of ‘Ukrainian Nazism and genocide’ became a staple of Russian state media in the weeks following the start of operations, and have permeated everyday life in Russia. In ‘the West’, meanwhile, the use of these terms was met with outrage and misunderstanding, and they were largely considered to be baseless and deliberately inflammatory. By offering a brief overview of the place fascism and genocide held in Ukraine during the Second World War, this research note explores how Ukraine’s turbulent history is being deliberatelymisconstrued.

“Ukraine’s Geopolitical Precarity.” Spectre, 6 July 2022. https://spectrejournal.com/ukraines-geopolitical-precarity/ , 2022

Ukraine's woeful geopolitical situation among the European Union, NATO/USA, and Russia. Written at the end of June 2022 as Ukraine was defending itself against the Russian invasion.

New Europes, 2023

This concise yet wide-ranging volume of articles offers readers a possibility to look beyond simplistic binaries and demonstrate how Ukraine’s differing historical experiences, regional diversity, and compound identities.Ukraine’s Many Faces have contributed to an indomitable Ukrainian national character, the shaping of which is happening in front of our eyes.The essays comprising this volume cover a vast historical period extending from the 16th century to the present, as such they will help the readers navigate the complex history of the Ukrainian lands, divided for centuries between belligerent empires and nationalizing governments. Unsurprisingly, it was these varied historical experiences that determined the disparate character of the regions that now form contemporary Ukraine.Equally, this collection accounts for various ethnic communities who had populated the Ukrainian lands and whose presence is deeply ingrained into the country’s cultural landscape. Its contributing authors, however, also seek to move beyond the simple provision of ready-made answers and confront more complicated questions concerning Ukraine’s entangled history and identities. Each of the collection’s three chronologically organized sections is supplemented by a set of primary sources, as well as conversational pieces with highly esteemed scholars and experts on the history of Ukraine and the region more broadly. In this regard,the aim of this volume is to encourage readers to form their own conclusions about Ukraine, its culture, and its people.

Russia as Ukraine's ‘Other’: Identity and Geopolitics. Ukraine and Russia: People, Politics, Propaganda and Perspectives., 2015