This hybrid event brings together critical political geographers to discuss the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Rationalising the irrational? Grappling with the Russo-Ukrainian War, Phase One (20 February 2014 – 23 February 2022), Dr Vlad Mykhnenko
Since early 2014, human geographers and social scientists at-large have been grappling with the causes and consequences of the Russian de facto annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and the subsequent war in the Ukrainian Donbas. What have we learnt over the past eight years, what we should try to remember, and what baggage we can now leave behind?

Reflections from a Political Geographer on Why ‘We’ Got it Wrong, Professor Pallot
Why did the academic community and political commentators miss the signs of the invasion of Ukraine? Professor Judith Pallot will reflect on the devastating impacts on Russian and East European Area Studies (including the discipline of geography in the region, and intellectual freedom, more generally) if the Russian aggression succeeds.

On the politics of historicising the war in Ukraine, Dr Ian Klinke
Unlike what some political realists, the far-right, the pro-Assad left and the Kremlin itself would like us to believe, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine was not provoked by the West. But to what extent can the steady deterioration of three decades of NATO-Russia relations help us understand how we ended up where we are? I will reflect on this highly politicised question by shedding some light on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s geopolitical culture.