Russo-Ukrainian War Research Articles

“What a Splendid World We Ruined”: the Precarious Presents and Posthuman Futures of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and Dmitry Glukhovsky’s Metro 2033

“What a Splendid World We Ruined”: the Precarious Presents and Posthuman Futures of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and Dmitry Glukhovsky’s Metro 2033

Return connectedness and volatility dynamics of the cryptocurrency network

The study examines the connectedness of return and volatility spillovers among cryptocurrencies using the Volume Adjusted Return Network Index (VARNI) and the Volume Adjusted Volatility Network Index (VAVNI) developed through the Student-t Copula function and the DCC-MGARCH. The constructed indices, VARNI and VAVNI, identify return contagion and volatility spillover contagion in cryptocurrencies around Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the recent Russo-Ukrainian War. The results show that VARNI and VAVNI dispersed before the COVID-19 crisis, concentrated during the COVID-19 crisis, and highly concentrated during the Russo-Ukrainian War. Moreover, the Uncertainty Index affects the volatility spillover from one cryptocurrency to another but does not affect the return connectedness.

Global Burn Prevention: Ukraine.

Burn injury accounts for a large proportion of surgically treatable disease. It is estimated that over 180,000 flame burn deaths occur annually across the globe, with roughly 95% occurring in low- or middle-income countries (LMIC). Within these countries children account for a disproportionately high number of burn injuries. As such, the WHO has identified burn prevention as a topic of interest, with an increased need in low- and middle-income countries. Here we describe the creation and implementation of a burn prevention program in Ukraine. We instituted a five-step burn prevention initiative consisting of; data gathering, program design, implementation, outcome evaluation, program maintenance, and expansion. The burn prevention initiative has been adopted nationally leading to policy change. Active education and an information campaign were used to target pediatric scald injuries and improve first aid care. The authors have successfully implemented a targeted multi-faceted, national, burn prevention program within Ukraine. The described approach may be used as a guide and adapted to create similar prevention programs within other countries or regions. At this time the Russo-Ukrainian War has caused an abrupt hold on our role in the prevention program and left the healthcare system in havoc. Moving forward, our team is prepared to reevaluate the impact of the war on social life and the medical system and aid in redesigning the prevention program when appropriate.

Discussing energy volatility and policy in the aftermath of the Russia–Ukraine conflict

The ongoing Russo–Ukrainian War has highly affected energy markets in the EU and worldwide, with different EU- and country-level emergency policy measures being advanced to tackle high energy prices. Despite the progress in green energy initiatives and the race toward climate neutrality by 2050, high energy prices are a matter of concern for all EU countries in the short-to-medium term. The current study investigates the energy price volatility in the aftermath of the Russia–Ukraine conflict, which is of high interest for designing effective government measures (such as monetary and energy policies) addressing the consequent changes occurring in employment, economic activity, commodity and food prices, and, ultimately, sustainable development. For the empirical analysis, we employed generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity models to capture the volatility of the following energy commodities: Brent crude oil, TTF natural gas, and UK natural gas. The empirical results reveal an elevated degree of persistence of the volatility, namely, that the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity term has a slow decay and pronounced fluctuations for all the energy products. The vulnerability of the EU’s energy policy to geopolitical factors is highlighted, especially for gas, which could be due to its dependence on Russian imports. Moreover, the sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia, namely the sixth package of sanctions, have a minimal immediate effect on stabilizing energy returns. The study offers several policy recommendations to improve the resilience of the EU’s energy sector.

Federalization, Land-for-Peace or a War Once More: Secession Conflicts in Post-Soviet Countries

Abstract This essay conceptualizes five recipes to solve secession conflicts that have taken place in postcommunist territories—federalization, land-for-peace, protectorate policy, reconquest, and the destruction of the parent state by the patron state—and investigates their merits and demerits. This essay provides case studies of the South Ossetian War in 2008 and its aftermath (as an example of the protectorate policy), the Second Karabakh War in 2020 (reconquest), and the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2022 (destruction of the parent state by the patron state). We observe the tendency that the ineffectiveness of federalization and land-for-peace induces parties of conflict to move on to unilateral or even coercive recipes.

"The war is here!" anxiety, trauma centrality, and the mediating role of daily stressors in Romanian and Ukrainian civilians.

The present study investigated the level of anxiety among Ukrainian and Romanian civilians brought about by the war that started in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, using a model for the impact of traumatic experiences. We aimed to test the mediating effect of daily stressors on the relationships between trauma centrality and anxiety. The research was conducted on a sample of 720 people (24.3% males and 75.7% females, Mage = 35.61, SD = 12.59). Participants were civilians who lived either in Ukraine or outside Ukraine but at a maximum distance of 100 km from the border when the conflict started. They filled out questionnaires that measure anxiety, trauma centrality-indicating how central an event is to an individual's identity and life story, and daily stressors-predisposing factor for negative mental health outcomes. The outcomes highlighted the direct relationship between trauma centrality and anxiety, but also the mediating effect of daily stressors on the aforementioned relationships (in the overall sample, Ukrainian sample, and Romanian sample). Our research also underlined that there are significant differences in anxiety levels between people who have children and those who do not (in the overall sample and the Ukrainian sample, but not among Romanian civilians). The present work contributes by enhancing knowledge about the relationships between trauma centrality, daily stressors, and anxiety within a war context, and the particularization of Carlson and Dalenberg's model (2000) in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian war. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Profiteers of Misery

Abstract Since its hailing as the ‘supreme international crime’ during the Nuremberg Trials, aggression has largely been neglected relative to other core international crimes. However, the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War starting in early 2022 is being held as an opportunity to breathe new life into this de facto dormant norm. This article seeks to address novel concerns as to the scope of liability permitted by the crime of aggression, which arise from Russia’s enthusiastic use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) in this conflict. It first overviews the relevant terminology applicable to the use of private armed personnel. It then asserts the value of pursuing accountability for both aggression and PMSCs. The article continues by evaluating the requirements of aggression’s ‘leadership element’, which seeks to restrict liability to high-level leaders. As an illustrative case study, it applies this to the Wagner Group’s military operations in Ukraine. This article confirms that senior corporate officers of PMSCs may, in principle, satisfy the leadership requirement of aggression, opening up the door for their liability and urging closer scrutiny of such matters.

Expect the unexpected: Did the equity markets anticipate the Russo-Ukrainian war?

In 2022, Russian military operations began in Ukraine, which surprised some, while others might have expected it. We investigate whether the expectations began to be priced in the equity markets before the operations. To estimate the start of information incorporation, we use the adjusted returns of 62 country-level stock market data assuming informed traders using a non-linear model and rolling-window regressions. We find that the equity markets started to price the conflict at least 50 days before the invasion, and approximately one-third of the information was incorporated on the event day.

Global geopolitical risk and inflation spillovers across European and North American economies

In this paper, we examine the spillovers across monthly inflation rates (measured by the CPI) of advanced North American and European economies. Using data covering the period from May 1963 to November 2022 and a time-varying spillover approach, we show that the total spillover index across the inflation rates spiked during the Russo-Ukrainian war, exceeding its previous peak shown during the 1970s energy crisis. Notably, we apply a quantile-on-quantile regression and reveal that changes in the total spillover index are positively associated with lagged changes in the global geopolitical risk (GPR) index. More specifically, changes in the GPR index are positively impacting all future changes in the inflation spillover index, whereas the GPR Acts index is only positively associated with large future changes in the inflation spillover index. Given that rising levels of inflation are posing risks to the financial system and economic growth, these findings should matter to the central banks and policymakers in advanced economies.

Protecting the cultural property of religious communities during war: The Church of Sweden and total defense planning

AbstractEven though places of worship are protected by the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, they often become targets. To safeguard the cultural property of religious communities, it is necessary to plan for wartime protection under peaceful conditions, but studies of how this planning was conducted after 1945 are largely missing. This Article compares how the cultural property of the Church of Sweden (Lutheran) has been planned for protection up until 2023. Cultural property protection was first introduced in World War II, but the Church had to plan and carry out most protective measures without state support. During the Cold War, a system for protecting movable property was developed that lasted until it was replaced in the 1980s by cultural protection plans that employed a more holistic approach to risk mitigation in peace as well as in war. Finally, the recent development and future challenges are discussed in relation to the 1954 Hague Convention and the reconstruction of a Swedish total defense due to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Assessing the Response of the Global South to Russo-Ukrainian War: Case Study of India

The Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, resulted in a prolonged war between the two countries. It creates a worldwide geoeconomic impact, including stagflation due to the disruption of the supply chains, profoundly affecting the economies of Global South countries. Additionally, the aggression contradicts the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence that the Global South countries hold dear (United Nations, 2015). Despite these, most Global South countries, including India, refused to condemn Russia for its actions, except for the UN General Assembly vote to condemn Russia on March 2. This situation begs the question: Why would not India, one of the significant Global South countries, blame Russia for its detrimental actions to the ideals of the Global South? We argue that when national interests and values come into conflict, Global South countries may prioritize their interest rather than uphold the values deeply held by the Global South—a vindication that Realpolitik still held preeminence within the foreign policymaking of the Global South countries, including India. This is evident in India's response to the Russian aggression, as India still maintains a strategic partnership with Russia even after Russia tramples the values of the Global South via its war in Ukraine. At the same time, India tries to avoid being engaged closely with Russia as India still needs the support of the United States to balance China's geopolitical moves, given India's territorial disputes with China.

Russo-Ukrainian War and Trust or Mistrust in Information: A Snapshot of Individuals’ Perceptions in Greece

The purpose of this study was to assess the Greek public’s perceptions of the reliability of information received about the Russo-Ukrainian war in the spring of 2022. The study was conducted through an online questionnaire survey consisting of closed-ended statements on a five-point Likert scale. Principal components analysis was performed on the collected data. The retained principal components (PCs) were subjected to non-hierarchical k-means cluster analysis to group respondents into clusters based on the similarity of perceived outcomes. A total of 840 responses were obtained. Twenty-eight original variables from the questionnaire were summarised into five PCs, explaining 63.0% of the total variance. The majority of respondents felt that the information they had received about the Russo-Ukrainian war was unreliable. Older, educated, professional people with exposure to fake news were sceptical about the reliability of information related to the war. Young adults who were active on social networks and had no detailed knowledge of the events considered information about the war to be reliable. The study found that the greater an individual’s ability to spot fake news, the lower their trust in social media and their information habits on social networks.

The Neo-Methodist Warfare : Dawn of a New Age?

With the re-escalated Russo–Ukrainian War, the modern world has met the conventional war again, however, the rapid technological development changed warfare since the Cold War. In this study the author will present similarities between the modern conventional war and the 18th century’s warfare (called the methodist warfare). The similarities are so widespread (both in the fields of security politics and tactical-level land warfare), that the modern conventional warfare in our age can be called neo-methodist warfare.

Comparative proxy strategies in the Russo-Ukrainian War

This article examines the role of strategy in proxy wars, with the goal of identifying relevant findings to proxy wars. Comparatively analyzing Russia and the U.S.’s proxy strategies in the Russo-Ukrainian War is useful to this end – four major findings emerge. First, a state’s proxy strategy is dependent on variables unique to that state, and those of the available proxy. Second, proxies – the actual individuals or groups – are not singular in their characteristics. A proxy’s uniqueness contributes to the range of options it provides its principal. Third, proxy strategies are not fixed. The range of proxy strategy options available to a state reflects the combined uniqueness of the principal and the proxy. Lastly, in proxy wars, concerns of conflict escalation might be a thing of the past. These points make an additive contribution to both strategic and proxy war scholarship by providing a useful examination of comparative proxy strategies.

National Identity in Media Discourses from Russia and Ukraine: Amid the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War

Summary This paper, based on the corpus of the news from TASS and UKRINFORM between February 24 and March 5, 2022, investigates different concerns of the two media platforms regarding conflict discourses, and analyzes their different naming strategies of social actors from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CDA). It is found that Russian and Ukrainian media attempted to construct different national identities for each other through distinct discourse strategies. The Russian TASS named Ukraine a security threat while including Donbas as Russia’s in-group member. It also utilized out-group discourse strategies to exclude western countries, such as the United States, from its friend circle. The Ukrainian media discourse from UKRINFORM, however, grouped Ukraine itself together with western countries allied with the United States while stigmatizing Russia and excluding the Donbas region. The current research shows that the politically driven principle is commonly used in the media discourses from TASS and UKRINFORM as the representative national media of the two countries.

Exploring the environmental consequences of roadside grass as a biogas feedstock in Northwest Europe

The Russo-Ukrainian war has highlighted concerns regarding the European Union's (EU) energy security, given its heavy dependence on Russian natural gas for electricity and heating. The RePowerEU initiative addresses this challenge by targeting a significant increase in biomethane production (up to 35 billion m3 by 2030) to replace natural gas, aligning with the EU methane strategy's emission reduction and air quality improvement goals. However, the use of energy crops as biogas feedstock has raised land-use concerns, necessitating a policy shift towards alternative sources such as agro-residues, livestock manure, and sewage sludge.This study investigates the environmental impacts of using roadside grass clippings (RG) as an alternative feedstock for biogas production, focusing on selected regions in Northwest Europe (Belgium, Netherlands). The aim is to evaluate the environmental performance of RG as a mono- or co-substrate for biogas production, comparing it to the current practice of composting. Additionally, the study assesses the environmental impacts associated with biogas end-use in these regions.The results indicate that co-digestion of RG with pig manure offers a more environmentally friendly alternative compared to mono-digestion of RG or the existing composting practice. This finding is primarily attributed to the avoided emissions resulting from conventional pig manure management. Furthermore, in terms of climate change impacts concerning biogas end-use, the study identifies that combined heat and power (CHP) systems are preferable to biomethane recovery in regions with a natural gas-based electricity mix. However, for reducing fossil resource use, biomethane recovery emerges as the preferred option.By providing insights into the environmental performance of RG as a biogas feedstock and evaluating the impacts of different biogas end-use options, this study offers insights to policymakers for the development of sustainable energy strategies in Northwest Europe.

The Dynamism of International Law in Politics: An Appraisal of Russo-Ukrainian War

The dynamism of international law when enmeshed in politics is critical especially when superpowers are involved in the violation of international humanitarian and human right laws. The Russia invasion of Ukraine is a vivid example. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which commenced on 24 February 2022 represented just the latest, albeit most devastating, intervention in a neighbouring former Soviet state. In the effort to examine that, our aims are to critically assess the dynamism of international law in politics through the analysis of the forceful invasion of territorial integrity of Ukraine by Russian government under the leadership of Vladimir Putin in order to underscore the potency of international law when the political interests of a superpowers are involved. In that regard, the paper employed the political realism theory of international relations in the effort to give the work a trajectory narrative. Secondary method of data collection and historical content analysis approach were employed in the collection and analysis of the phenomenon understudy. One of the key findings of this paper is that indeed Russia violated the sovereignty of Ukraine and therefore violated the rules of international law and as a superpower nation the global community seems confused or carefully handling the war in order to avoid the occurrence of another world war. Russia being the current president of the Permanent Members of the UN left the entire nations concerned with worries over the violation of human and humanitarian rights of the Ukrainians. Based on our findings, one of the recommendations put forward is the urgent need for all member states of the UN to take steps to end the conflict as soon as possible in a way that all the interests of the parties are considered. They should comply strictly with the rules of international human right laws and international humanitarian laws to ensure the protection of civilians.

Ukrainian Zoos Amidst the War – The Threats and Challenges of Running a Zoo during the Military Conflict

Abstract The Russo-Ukrainian War, especially the full-scale invasion started in 2022, has grossly affected the zoos in Ukraine. Present work gives a review of different aspects of zoo life amidst the war: threats for zoo animals and their enclosures, threats for zoo visitors, problems of zoo staff, challenges of supply, utilities, finances, evacuation and maintaining basic zoo functions. Main consequences of the war for the zoo community and the lessons we can learn from this experience are broadly discussed.

Peculiarities of primary psychological care, counseling and psychotherapy in conditions of war

The relevance of the investigated problem lies in the need to provide primary psychological assistance to military personnel and other victims of the Russo-Ukrainian war at its current stage, because psychological problems are occurring in an increasing number of people, in particular in the territory of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. The purpose of the article is to determine the specifics and stages of providing psychological assistance, as well as consultations to victims of the war, primarily to the populations of Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, which are located within the war zone. In the course of the research, a set of methods was used, namely analytical, graphic and synthesis methods. The main results of the conducted research should be considered the established features of providing assistance to the affected part of the population, which was at the epicentre of combat events in the Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts, as well as specific actions that prevent the deterioration of a person’s psychological state during the war. Identified were the factors needed to provide psychological assistance for thevarious population specifics, taking into account aspecvts such as gender, age, as well as the person’s degree of psychological deterioration. The practical significance of the results of this academic paper lies in the development of an algorithm of actions for providing psychological assistance to Ukrainians during the state of war in the country, as well as conducting the necessary actions and consultations to improve the psychological state of the population affected by the war from specific cities. The results of the study can be used as an example to provide consultations and conduct to the population of other regions of Ukraine and beyond in real time. In addition, the results can be a helpful tool for establishing recommendations for improving mental health in conditions of war.

The Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine on the Capital Markets from the CEE Countries

Abstract The price of stocks is a good indication of investors’ expectations for the evolution of capital markets, comprising their fears and hopes regarding future developments. The information regarding a disruptive event such as a military attack spreads rapidly across countries affecting investors’ perceptions and causing them to sell their stocks and target safer investments. The scientific literature on the topic is growing lately due to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war and its consequences. The research paper investigates the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the capital markets from the Central and Eastern European region using the event study methodology. The paper studies the abnormal returns recorded by each capital market on the event day (February 24, 2022), as well as the cumulative abnormal returns for 6-day, 11-day and 16-day event windows following the attack. The findings show that most of the capital markets recorded sharp declines on the event-day, reaching a negative abnormal return event of 10% on February 24. For the longer event windows the negative impact persisted through cumulative abnormal returns recorded for most of the markets. The highest declines were recorded on the 6-day and 11-day event windows as all capital markets considered incorporating the bad news of the war outbreak and lost the initial hope of being a disinformation or a short-term military attack. Within 35 trading days following the invasion, 64% of the markets rebounded and returned to their pre-attack level. However, 4 capital markets recorded more than 200 trading days with a level lower than the one registered before the invasion. The paper contributes to literature extending the studies of capital markets’ behavior during military conflicts focusing on neighboring countries.