This aritcle was written by Mariya Chechel, an Arnold Foundation student in the LXX. Mariya was born in Ukraine and came to the UK in 2022.

Homeland security is the ability of the state to prevent the attacks or threats on the well-being of the state. War is a huge threat to the homeland security of the state. In the process of the invasion or being a war state means that the lives of the innocent people leaving here are not in safety. It can result troubles with the environmental security in the country itself or even worldwide in case of nuclear security threat. The government must do their best to make the situation as safe for the civilians as possible, as it refers to the obligations of the government to provide the basic needs, safety, and the security of the human rights for the civilians. It becomes much harder to provide it when there are threats in almost all types of security, especially energy and economic securities. However, if the government is not able to provide the stable national security to their people, there is a need to ask other countries for the alliances and their help, or otherwise, country will become a failed state. It’s not always beneficial for other countries to enter the battlefield, as they are also risking their national security. Case with Ukraine demonstrates how significant the cost of entrance to the war is, however despite this there are reasons for the countries from the international community to take the risk and not resign.

One of the reasons for the war in Ukraine, according to the Russia’s position is the NATO’s expansion that provoked Russia to offensively defend its homeland security and invade Ukraine. However because of the Russia’s need to feel certainly secure there is a threat to the homeland and national security in the whole Europe. Important to note that Ukraine is a developed country which is tending to the democratic values, peace and partnerships with other countries. That’s why other democratic countries can’t stand back and watch how the war is killing people and destroying important for life infrastructure. From the beginning of the full-scaled war on February 24, 2022, there are more than 8.4 thousand civilian Ukrainians are dead, without Mariupol and Volnovaha – presumably more than 100 thousand dead. Western countries feel they need to help this state, because Ukraine has a huge potential and could have brought a considerable contribution to the development of the world community. However, Russia initially was against the idea of Ukraine having partnerships with the EU, joining the EU or especially joining NATO. From Russia’s position, NATO is a threat to its homeland security, because NATO was initially created as a union (31 countries nowadays) which stands against the potential threats from the Soviet Union. Russia was destroying Ukraine’s homeland security step by step with intension to avoid Ukraine joining EU or NATO. First, Russia was one of the countries that granted sovereignty to Ukraine when the Budapest memorandum was signed, nevertheless it has threated the border security and homeland security in Ukraine by occupying Crimea in 2014 and therefore making the borders blurred, so that Ukraine is unable to join NATO until this problem is solved. Russia has done the same thing with Donetsk and Luhansk regions the same year later. Many political analysists, including some from the Oxford University like Olivia Durand think that Russia’s actions can be described as not only intension to stop the NATO’s expansion, but also to get all the territories that belonged to the USSR back, hence Russia has its imperial ambitions. That’s demonstrated nowadays, how Russia is trying to get more territories like Mariupol, Zaporizhzhya, Kharkiv, Mykolayiv, Sumy regions, excusing itself as if the citizens of these regions were happy to leave Ukraine and join Russian Federation. It’s partly true, as some people did believe in a better future with Russian government. The explanation to this is the Russian propaganda that was working well since the Soviet Union still existed. With the introduction of the internet to the world community, spreading the propaganda became much easier, so that Russia started to threaten Ukraine’s cyber security. It was the seed that Russia has planted that brought a detriment to Ukraine’s political stability. The Revolution of Dignity and The Orange Revolution should have been the first two important bells, and though the European countries supported the democratic tendency in Ukraine, Russia’s reaction once more proved that its influence is a threat to European democracy.

The situation in Ukraine influenced European economic security as well and there are various consequences of the choices that were made during this time. Russia has presented its invasion as Ukraine’s choice where Ukraine will either partner with Russia or either continue to develop on its own and partner with the EU. The problem for Ukraine is that Russia was not considering the second option as possible, or better to say nationally secure for itself. Ukraine is the mediator between the two sides of Europe: Western and Eastern. According to Jonathan Masters Deputy Managing Editor of the publisher “Council on Foreign Relations” and his article “Ukraine: Conflict at the Crossroads of Europe and Russia”: “some experts view the Russia-Ukraine war as a manifestation of renewed geopolitical rivalry between major world powers”. Depending on which side of the political court Ukraine will be at, its position will make the other side feel less secure, as it happened with NATO. EU didn’t want to threat its economic security in advance and take Ukraine into the EU. Hence, everyone was waiting for Ukraine to complete the criteria, so that there will be no loss for the EU’s economy to help the new joining state to catch up and spend the EU’s national costs. However, did this cautiousness and lack of attention to the situation in Ukraine prevented Europe from the economic consequences? Now, the EU is experiencing a hard time because of the war in Ukraine. Prices are rising exponentially because Russia is not supplying its natural resources such as gas and oil, as the European countries and the US applied sanctions on Russia and don’t buy these resources in purpose to weaken Russia. According to the European Central Bank the inflation in the EU has risen from the 2.6% to 8.4% because of the war in Ukraine and after the COVID period. This statistic demonstrates that the situation in Europe is upsetting in terms of stable prices. The question now is whose economy is stronger: Russia’s or Europe’s. Sanctions are not beneficial for either of these sides, as they are damaging their economic security. For the European Union it is quite an inconvenience to change the normal order and build new logistic paths based on the raw materials trade with countries like USA, instead of importing it from Russia. Whilst for Russia it may cause a tremendous economic crisis which can destroy the country, as the most important source of getting the revenue for the government to support the country’s well-being is exporting the raw materials to the foreign countries. The plan that the EU and the US developed is to bring massive sanctions upon Russia which will strike its economic security then Russia is likely to resign. However, Russia decided to do nothing and by doing so it had threatened the well-being in the EU, which primarily relates to the energy security in Europe. War with Ukraine made Russia become an energy catastrophe, mostly for the countries that were buying its gas and oil for decades and became dependant on these resource supplies. Another outcome for the world could have been if other foreign countries didn’t touch Ukraine at all and sacrificed it to Russia. The trade partnerships could be great, and Russia could still supply oil and gas with low prices. As mentioned before, Ukraine is a choice for the world: choice towards pragmatic aims and goals or freedom and human rights.

Another threat for the international community is the threat for the world’s international nuclear security that started to grow exponentially because of the Russia’s war with Ukraine. From the beginning of the full-scaled war, many European countries began to help Ukraine as much as they can. According to the United Nations (UNHCR) there are more than 5 million Ukrainian refugees who are now finding a shelter in Europe. That’s the way how Europe shows its unity, the tendency for the friendships and partnerships. However, there is a risk for these countries to have a dangerous outcome for them. European countries and the US are helping with the military security. They’ve started to supply weapons to Ukraine, and some of them are also suggesting their homes to serve Ukrainians for the first time as they’ve arrived in the foreign countries. Britain was one of the countries that provided a significant help to Ukraine. However, for Britain it was not only costly to provide it, but also dangerous in terms of Russia’s reaction to this. In the first couple of months of the full-scaled war in Ukraine, when Britain started to actively support Ukraine, it was one of the first nuclear threats that Russia has put on the world. Britain was a first potential target to eliminate for Russia. Now, this problem touches not only Britain. It seems that Russia is desperately trying to make everyone in different countries across the word scared with its nuclear weapons, which works well and hugely threats the world’s stability. These nuclear threats that Russia is creating for the world are calling out the need for the ways to make the situation safer. That’s where US brings the nuclear treaty, called START, that they’ve signed with Russia and agreed to extend it till 2026. However, these days Russia decided to suspend the declaration. These actions by Russia make the world destabilize and feel anxious about the next unpredictable chaotic movements that Vladimir Putin may decide to implement next. Even if the world will find the way to control Russia and how to stop its nuclear manipulations that are threatening world’s nuclear security, there is still a high chance that Russia will ignore any treaty created if there will be a good opportunity to get an advantage for it. Russia will only keep the agreements till it’s beneficial for it. Furthermore, it seems like there is no possible usual way to scare Russia, as all the strictest sanctions were already applied and the nuclear weapon threat seems irrational, as it threatens the world’s nuclear security and well-being. The nuclear weapons became so strong, so that the need in comparison which country has the more significant and dangerous bomb declined itself, as only with a few bombs the whole planet can be destroyed in a second. That’s why there is a need in a development of the new sphere: IT and the cyber world.

Cyber security became more relevant these days, especially with the new inventions from China that are striking USA’s cyber security. The cyber-wars between US and China were escalating through years, however war in Ukraine gave the foundation for China to become a mediator between US and Russia. China uses the opportunity to build a stronger partnership with Russia and take part in global politics discussions as well. Friendship with Russia helps China to develop new technology with Russia’s raw resources. Therefore, this makes China more competitive in cyber sphere and gives the opportunity to threat USA’s cyber security. For now, it’s hard to evaluate the threat that the cyber wars are imposing on the world’s stability and well-being, however the indisputable fact is that the country which will win the cyber run, will have more advantages to rule the world and potentially bring more threats to its stability.

In conclusion, war in Ukraine became a significant event to the world, which opened a huge variety of the possible outcomes and the areas for the global politics development. Ukraine became the case where not only the country is fighting for the democracy, but almost the whole world is risking their national security for the peace and respect for human rights in this country. Despite of troubles with economic, energy, raw material, military, nuclear security, Western countries are still grouping together, bringing the collaboration into the collective security, helping each other, and looking for the ways to make everyone feel safe. The cost that other countries from the international community are paying for the homeland security in Ukraine is tremendous. However, if the situation in Ukraine went silent, there is no way that the international security could exist in any way, as all the democratic principles based on the human rights that the world community was building for decades will be a hollow sound that pretends to be a type of security. That’s why despite the cost the world’s paying for Ukraine’s peace, the international community is still helping this country and trying to provide all the necessary supplies to build up the security it requires to reach a democracy and peace.