War and politics. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and refugee crisis on the eastern EU border from the perspective of border studies

Wojciech Opioła

University of Opole, Institute of Political Science and Public Administration
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2473-3375

Bartosz Czepil

University of Opole, Institute of Political Science and Public Administration
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4907-795X

Marcin Dębicki

University of Wrocław
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6510-0614

Ewa Ganowicz

University of Opole, Institute of Political Science and Public Administration
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6558-5976

Justyna Kajta

SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2428-8876

Katalin Kovály

Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences in Budapest, Geographical Institute
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8554-6816

Łukasz Moll

University of Wrocław
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2251-9351

Natalia Niedźwiecka-Iwańczak

University of Wrocław
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7894-3274

Elżbieta Opiłowska

University of Wrocław
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7084-2631

Grigorii Pidgrushniy

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Institute of Geography

Abstract

Since February 24, 2022, we have been witnessing the next stage of what began in the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian War: a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. For the first time in the history of the European Union, the intensive armed conflict is now approaching the border of the EU and Schengen Zone. The consequences of war: the refugee crisis, humanitarian aid, and economic problems have affected EU countries both immediately and directly. While keeping in mind the human tragedy and the tragedy of Ukraine, we would like to address a few important questions from the perspective of regional and border scholars. From this perspective, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine is another stage of the new political order in Europe, preceded by the war in Ukraine that started in 2014, the 2015 migration crisis, 2021 Belarus-EU border crisis, which altogether – from the perspective of the border studies – could be described as re-bordering and securitization of borderlands.

In this joint editorial, we address four main questions. Firstly, how we can interpret the Russian invasion in the wider, historical context, taking the frontier thesis as an explanatory category developed by Turner (1994). Secondly, the Ukrainian refugee crisis, in the context of the previous Belarusian-EU border crisis, is a multi-layered issue, where religion, gender, geopolitics, and rationales meet. Thirdly, apart from the military and political actions, war and refugee flux could be seen from the perspective of a grassroots movement of aid. Fourthly, the war in Ukraine brings uncertainty and questions about democracy and peace in Western Europe.