Ukraine

Ukrainian women have been in the spotlight of international media for months. Pictures of mothers crossing the border, representing the victims of the war in the news, has aroused sorrow and pity in audiences. But women that flee or migrate are much more than powerless victims.

China’s past diplomatic efforts provide precedents and options for a more involved role in peacemaking in Ukraine.

Despite its turbulent domestic politics, Ukraine rarely featured at the top of the EU’s security agenda in the post-Soviet period. The scale of current Russian military intervention changed that, bringing the war to the EU’s doorstep, and challenging a previously lenient approach to Russia which the EU refused to see as a potential aggressor. The current conflict is an expression of Putin’s geopolitical aspirations and his desperate attempt to maintain a Russian grip on its “near abroad”. However, it is also a culmination of Ukraine’s long struggle for national self-determination on multiple levels.

Case studies from Norway and Ukraine show the importance of energy resources for national identity and cohesion