ETHNO-POLITICAL PROCESSES IN UKRAINE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ONGOING WAR

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of ethno-political processes unfolding in Ukraine as a result of the large-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. The object of the study is the Ukrainian society, which the author interprets as a complex, integrated ethno-political system, individual elements of which are characterised by varying degrees of mobilisation in defending their collective rights to preserve and manifest their own ethno-cultural iden- tity in the plane of social (including political) interaction. The basis of the methodology of this article is a combination of primordialist and constructivist paradigms for studying the functioning of ethnic communities in Ukrainian society, which are forced to adapt to the challenges and threats of a large-scale military and political conflict. The synthetic nature of the methodology used makes it possible to clarify both the actual population transformations undergone by the country’s ethnic communities and to identify the tactics and strategies of local, national and foreign elites in their «design» influence on collective identities and models of historical memory of these groups. The research methodology is based on the analysis of empirical material (statistical reports of official institutions, expert assessments) on tactics and strategies for adapting the country’s ethno-political communities to the threats and challenges of the Russian-Ukrainian war. It is proved that the large-scale military-political conflict caused by the aggression of the Russian Federation has led to significant transformations in the intra-systemic relations between the individual components of the Ukrainian ethno-political organism.The means of deconstructing the Ukrainian national identity in the controlled territories by the occupation structures are identified. The used technologies are characterised as ethnocidal and genocidal. A critical analysis of the activities of state bodies in the field of management of ethno-political processes is carried out. The results of the study con- firmed the existence of fundamental threats (domestic and foreign) to the existence of the Ukrainian ethno-political organism.