Despite the distance, Ukraine and Taiwan share parallels in the domain of geopolitical struggle and identity issues. Both are experiencing an ongoing process of national identity strengthening and redefinition. External factors, such as Russia’s 2014 occupation of Crimea and the subsequent 2022 invasion of Ukraine and China’s increasing pressure on Taiwan, have shaped both Ukrainian and Taiwanese identities and people’s attitudes. On the one hand, this paper explores the transformation of Ukrainian identity in the wake of Russian aggression, focusing on how the invasion has influenced the strengthening of civic attachment among Ukrainians. On the other hand, we explore the development of Taiwanese identity in the context of growing distinctions from mainland China, primarily focusing on Taiwan’s ongoing democratization process and developing a self-confident national identity distinct from the mainland. The rise of Taiwanese identity coincided with growing sympathy for Taiwan’s independence. Additionally, we consider the evolving nature of civic and national identities, emphasizing their fluidity and adaptability in response to political and social complexity.

The geopolitical location between Russia and Germany has historically determined Poland’s foreign policy, in which Ukraine has been given a privileged place. Polish policy-makers have perceived Ukrainian independence as the main barrier preventing the restoration of Russian imperial ambitions. Consequently, Poland has been unwavering in its commitment to supporting the Ukrainians in their resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This attitude was visible in Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s 2023 lecture at the University of Heidelberg. Nevertheless, relations between Ukraine and Poland and the current Russia-Ukraine conflict are far more complex than is mainly acknowledged. Behind Poland’s support, there is an unhealed wound of Ukrainian nationalism, which the current government in Ukraine does not want to unknowledge. The Ukrainian nationalist ideas, based on the slogan “Nation above all,” are very different from those of the Poles. Upon proper recognition of the multifaceted causes of war and the situation’s complexity, a cease-fire and a peaceful settlement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict could be achieved.

This analytical paper explores the impact of Russia’s full-scale invasion on Ukrainian politics and society since 2022. The war has reshaped the political landscape, solidifying existing power structures while bringing military veterans and social organizations to the forefront. The role of Ukrainian oligarchs has diminished due to financial setbacks and the “anti-oligarch law,” though some are adapting through charitable activities. Additionally, the Ukrainian government is curtailing the influence of the Moscow-affiliated church as part of a broader decolonization effort. The article also examines how the conflict has accelerated Ukraine’s drive for EU and NATO integration, with rising public support fostering domestic reforms and anti-corruption measures.

The war in Ukraine in historical and political dimensions

When starting operations in Ukraine, the Russian Federation set itself specific strategic goals. To determine the degree to which these goals have been achieved, they should be correlated with the course of Russian activities to date. The first phase of the Russian military operation ended in failure, and the implementation of the set strategic goals should be considered very difficult or even impossible. The initial answer may be that the war was planned and started by the Kremlin and its security services, not professional military officials. This is where the Russians ignored certain basic principles of the art of war and the concept of new generation war itself. The Russians have not designated a commander-in-chief in the Ukrainian theater of war.

Changes in Ukrainians’ sense of security during the war 2014 – 2023

Today’s world, with the ongoing war in Ukraine, shows that conflicts, both armed and low-intensity, are directed not only at killing and conquering territory, but also at destabilising state functions and exacerbating social disputes. The aim is to weaken the morale of enemy populations and to lower their sense of security. Combat and everyday traumatic situations negatively affect soldiers and civilians, their attitudes or behaviour. This article attempts to present the changes in the feeling of security of Ukrainians in the years 2014 – 2023 during the war with the Russian Federation. The author presents the views of renowned experts and research on the phenomenon. He identifies the factors influencing the lowering or strengthening of the sense of security during the ongoing conflict. He emphasises that the sense of security translates into the will not only to fight and win, but also to survive and thrive.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022–2023/2024. Selected military aspects

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has achieved the opposite of its intended result. Russia has suffered a strategic defeat, losing the battle for Ukraine in 2022. Putin is trying to settle for a half-hearted result – the occupation and annexation of Crimea, Donbas and Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. The West has shown an attitude of unity and solidarity with Ukraine, providing major military, economic and humanitarian support. The U.S., Britain, Germany, Poland and the Baltic states have played a major role in this process. Far-reaching economic sanctions have been imposed against Russia and the settlement of war crimes has been announced. Overcoming many internal problems, Ukraine has united in the face of an invasion and existential threat from Russia. Putin’s pursuit of a solution to the “Ukrainian question” has accelerated the consolidation of the Ukrainian people and state. By resisting aggression, Ukraine has convinced Western governments and societies of its commitment to European values and the Euro-Atlantic security system. Firm and swift action in retrofitting Ukraine’s Armed Forces with the necessary equipment and ammunition will allow a definitive solution to Russia’s imperial inclinations.

Talking about a lost home

Over the past few years, the Russian-Ukrainian war has caused hundreds of thousands of human tragedies. One of the most painful consequences of the conflict is the loss of homes for thousands of families in Ukraine. Many of them have been forced to leave their homes in search of a safe haven from the hostilities. In this article, we will focus on the problem of home loss in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. We will discuss how to talk about this difficult topic, the emotional and practical consequences of losing one’s home, and how the international community can help rebuild the lives of those who have lost their homes.

Nuclear powers are losing wars too! Clash in the cognitive domain – Russian nuclear blackmail vs. Ukraine’s chances of victory

The clash conducted in the cognitive domain is aimed at influencing the will, determination, coherence of decision-making centers and threat assessment, at the level of individuals, groups and entire societies. Freedom of speech and multicentricity, make democratic societies more vulnerable to influence in the cognitive domain. Strategic signaling of nuclear readiness plays a special role among the leverage tools used by the Russian Federation. The interests of Western states have been and continue to be violated by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. At the same time, the potential of Western states exceeds Russian potential many times over in a number of areas. Russia can count on a favorable resolution of the conflict for itself due to a calculation that takes into account the effective disruption of Western unity and determination to support a belligerent Ukraine, an element of which is the aforementioned threat of Russia’s use of nuclear weapons.

In this study, the author attempts to provide a landscape of crime in the wake of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in February 2022. After a general outline of the structure of the public security system in Ukraine and the conditions under which the crime-fighting services operate, the major changes in the crime structure that have taken place since the Russian military invasion of Ukraine are discussed. The article also provides a synthesis of the impact of the conflict on crime rate in Poland.

The current events related to the hybrid and now full-scale war in Ukraine have led the Ukrainian political leadership to realize the need for developing multivector international cooperation, which was previously concentrated mainly on the countries of the Global North. The African continent, due to its active economic and demographic development, has become a region of intense competition among many world powers, including former colonial metropoles, the EU, the U.S., as well as China, Russia, and Turkey. The Russian-Ukrainian war has deepened the food crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa and intensified Russia’s use of private military companies in certain states. Ukraine is fully capable of offering African countries cooperation in various fields—from trade to joint production of machinery, leveraging expertise in IT, cybersecurity, and the military sector. The recognition of the need to change its approach to the region has led to the development of several strategic documents, and attention to their implementation will yield both economic and political dividends for Ukraine and African states alike.

Disinformation as one of the tools in hybrid warfare

This article aims to highlight the variety of tools used today in hybrid warfare, which combine conventional warfare with irregular tactics and disinformation, posing new challenges to traditional strategies. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Ukraine and Russia, and Poland and Belarus, among others, where disinformation and the media played a key role, were analysed. The need for media education, public awareness raising, accountability of media and social media platforms, and the introduction of regulation as integrated measures necessary to build resilience against information manipulation were identified.

International scientific cooperation of Ukraine in the Antarctic

The article focuses on Ukraine’s international scientific cooperation in the Antarctic, which is part of the realization of Ukraine’s national interests in the region and the country’s Polar interests in general. The study makes an analysis of the main international treaties that create the legal field for international cooperation and form the basis of the Antarctic Treaty System. Author try to find out the state of adaptability of international legal norms that regulate international relations in Antarctic to Ukrainian legislation. The study shows the process of establishing Ukraine as a full-fledged subject of the International Antarctic community from obtaining its own Antarctic research station to acquiring the status of a Consultative Party with the opportunity to make decisions and accession to the main international organizations of the Antarctic Treaty. The research pays attention on the Great Britain’s role in this process. The article highlights that the galleries of corporation between Ukrainian scientists and foreign colleagues, in particular, participation in the international projects in the context of today’s challenges for Ukraine and the whole Antarctic Treaty System.

The fight against disinformation in the European Union, using the example of the war in Ukraine

Disinformation, meaning false information disseminated to mislead or deceive the audience, is gaining prominence in social and political life. This article aims to analyze the Russian disinformation narrative regarding the war in Ukraine and to present the European Union’s response to this false narrative. The study was carried out based on literature on the subject, source documents, and content posted on the EUdisinfo.eu. The analysis shows how dangerous the Russian disinformation narrative is for international relations and how important it is to constantly analyze content published on the Internet and expose irregularities.

Summer 2024 – the background and course of the Polish-Ukrainian crisis

Polish-Ukrainian relations have a long history, and the official interstate ones since 1991, the independence of Ukraine. Most of the time they were orders, particularly during Petro Proshenka’s presidency, when the tone was set by Bandera nationalists, while the Law and Justice Party (PiS) was in power. The main bone of contention was the different treatment of each other’s history. After the onslaught of the Russian Federation and the start of a full-scale war with Ukraine, Poland took in a huge number of Ukrainian refugees, made available huge support in armaments and in the political area. It was estimated that this lasted until the autumn of 2022, i.e., the so-called case of the explosion of the rocket in Przewodovo and the strenuous telling of President Zelensky, contrary to the findings of US intelligence, that it was an accidental Ukrainian rocket. In the summer of 2023, the “grain crisis” and the accompanying “transportation crisis” erupted. In the fall of the aforementioned year, during a session of the UN General Assembly, Zelenski canceled an agreed-upon meeting with President Duda and sharply attacked Poland in that international forum and practiced destruction in talks with leaders of leading countries. He was counting on Donald Tusk’s team to take power. The latest event deepening the crisis was the atypical statement in Poland by Minister Dmytro Kuleba and the continuation of the growing crisis. The chance of overcoming it is slim.

February 24, 2022: Russian forces start the full-scale invasion of Ukraine under the orders of Russian President Putin. Since then, our world has been in turmoil; what seemed certain for years is not certain. After the end of the Second World War, the World Powers established international organizations to prevent that amount of suffering from happening again. Are international organizations useful for maintaining peace? This research essay is going to address the question based on available literature and internet news sources to draw some tangible conclusions and perhaps even to suggest some improvements on how international organizations will be able to stay relevant for global peace in the future. The War in Ukraine will serve as a case study in the essay’s second half. The reader will learn that international organizations have performed well in their functions, that Western nations did things wrong in handling the Ukrainian crisis, and that organizations like NATO got a new drive and purpose courtesy of the Russian aggression. Most importantly, the reader will learn that argumentations on the demise of the liberal world order are premature at best.

Private armies and the mercenary profession associated with them are nothing new in the history of wars. The mercenary troops of Italian conditioners and German Landsknecht operating at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance even contributed to creating a romantic myth of mercenary soldiers. Even the French Revolution did not end private armies and mercenaries, which resulted in the creation of large, conscripted national armies. In the 21st century, we observe a renaissance of private armies. Military strategists are already talking about the privatization of war. This can be confirmed by the growing participation of private military corporations in armed conflicts in the 21st century. An example is the Russian Wagner Group at the forefront. The Wagner Group, as a tool in the hands of Russian authorities, participates not only in the war in Ukraine. The multifaceted activities and certain peculiarities in the functioning of the Wagner Group

Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of education based on the example of cooperation between the Donbas State Pedagogical University and Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań

In the article, the author describes Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of higher education through the prism of cooperation between the two universities, focusing on the years 2021–2024. Gives examples of implemented and planned activities, which are based on the comprehensive support of representatives of Ukrainian higher education. The article aims to acquaint the reader with the activity of the Polish university in the Ukrainian aspect and the scope of support for Ukrainian partner higher educational institutions.

Selected profiles of borderlands women of 16th–18th centuries in the literary achievements of Dr Antoni Joseph Rolle

The article presents a nowadays forgotten creator from 19th-century areas of Ukraine, know at that time as an outstanding physician, psychiatrist, amateur historian and writer. Rolle was undoubtedly and outstanding person of his time because over the years he created many articles and works in the field of medicine, history and old polish literature. One of his passions was the above-mentioned history, including forgotten women’s figures in history, whose fates he discussed in the form of stories and historical talks. However, the article presents only selected profiles of women whose fates highlighted the reality of the former borderlands and the realities of women at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries.