Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

The protection of cultural heritage is an important element of a country’s cultural policy. The article describes the nature of threats posed by armed conflicts to cultural heritage and the destruction of Ukrainian cultural property by Russian aggression in 2022. The article aims at discussion of the consequences of Russia’s deliberate destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage and offers an interdisciplinary insight into protection of cultural heritage during the contemporary armed conflict. These initial observations from Russian aggression against Ukraine serve as a starting point for a discussion on challenges related to the protection of cultural heritage during a potential armed conflict in Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on practical observations from Ukraine, the article calls for improvements to the protection of cultural heritage in Poland.

The protection of cultural heritage is seen as an important element of a country’s cultural policy. The article describes the nature of the threats posed by Russian aggression on Ukrainian cultural heritage and the destruction of cultural property. The article was aimed at highlighting the consequences of Russia’s deliberate destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage and an interdisciplinary look at its value and protection during the contemporary armed conflict. This assessment can serve as a starting point for a discussion on the challenges related to the protection of cultural heritage during a potential armed conflict in Central and Eastern Europe. Drawing on practical examples of Ukraine, solutions were proposed to improve the protection of cultural heritage in Poland.

The article investigates the specifics of the military-industrial complex functioning in Ukraine. Theoretical analysis has shown that the development of the country’s defense industry and the state of enterprise`s financial security within this industry have a dual impact on various components of the national security system: is a realization tool of the national interests, which in turn creates opportunities for its strengthening, and it can also be a source of threats to the state`s economic security by its components due to the accumulation of internal negative elements on enterprises (insufficient development and low level of military products competitiveness, obsolescence of fixed assets at enterprises, etc), as well as due to the low ability of enterprises to respond adequately to the challenges arising from changes in external conditions and factors (disruption of sustainable cooperation, increased competition between different military products in domestic and foreign markets, etc). The activity legal framework, legal status and structure of the state concern “Ukroboronprom” have been defined. The strategic growth priorities of defense industry of Ukraine have been cleared up. The financial security of enterprises operating in the defense industry can be ensured not only by using passive mechanisms to resist internal and external destructive factors, but also by mechanisms of efficient interaction with the environment. This in turn allows the company to avoid the need to invest capital in sources of raw materials, production or creation of distribution channels. Access to certain technologies or knowledge, the advantages of narrow specialization and the possibility of increasing consumer value, these all are important reasons for establishing strategic cooperation between different companies.

This article discusses the Ukrainian legislation on cybersecurity. The necessity of developing an efficient cybersecurity system was raised by the hybrid war conducted by Russia over the last few years, in which many critical infrastructure objects have been destroyed with serious consequences not only for the end consumers but also for the security of the state. Consequently, Ukraine has begun issuing a number of laws aiming at strengthening its cyber defense capabilities by establishing an efficient national cybersecurity system. The analysis has clearly shown that although important steps have already been taken in this direction, much still remains to be done to protect the Ukrainian critical infrastructure.

This paper examines the reforming process in the coal mining industry in Ukraine and analyses reform outcomes which a gradualist approach adopted to recover the industry has delivered. Ukraine’s gradualist approach is addressed in the paper narrowly through the lens of rent seeking, established in the coal industry in Ukraine in the 1980s, which persisted and stretched across the highest tiers of the government after the country gained independence. By now, reform achievements turned to be much less fruitful than in other countries - proponents of gradualism, first of all CEE and FSU countries. Detailed analysis of strategic documents which define development of the coal mining sector, reveal inconsistencies all of which lead us to the conclusion that the recent reform attempts are not purposed, in fact, towards implementation unlike declared. Strategic documents are not timely consistent when it comes to defining stages of the coal mining reform and a clear implementation timeline, not speaking about agreement on all major reforming steps to be undertaken.