Challenges to national defence in contemporary geopolitical situation

This paper develops an integrated analytical framework for assessing the environmental impacts of artillery activity on soil ecosystems. The approach combines military-technical parameters with environmental, spatial, and economic data using GIS and geostatistical methods. A key contribution is the Environmental Burden Index (EBI), which evaluates environmental load across five domains: chemical contamination, physical degradation, spatial distribution of impacts, ecological sensitivity and recovery complexity. The results demonstrate that environmental degradation arises from the interaction of multiple factors, particularly fire intensity, munition type, terrain morphology, and soil characteristics, rather than from isolated contamination indicators. The proposed framework enables objective comparison of affected sites, identification of remediation priorities, and supports decision-making processes in post-conflict recovery and sustainable land management.