Editorial Note: Ukraine’s Reconstruction and the V4’s Strategic Responsibility

The war in Ukraine has generated the greatest political, social, and economic challenge to Europe since the end of the Cold War. The devastation of infrastructure, industry, and communities is immense, yet the process of reconstruction has already begun. Unlike earlier episodes of post-conflict recovery, Ukraine’s trajectory is inseparable from its aspirations for European Union membership, and therefore from the interests of its immediate neighbours. For the Visegrád Four (V4) countries — Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic — Ukraine’s integration represents both an extraordinary challenge and a historic opportunity. This special issue of the journal brings together a set of articles that engage with different facets of Ukraine’s reconstruction and integration. Collectively, they demonstrate that the challenges Ukraine faces cannot be reduced to technical fixes or isolated reforms. They concern the very principles of statehood, development, and governance in a post-war context. At the same time, they reveal that Ukraine’s path forward is intimately tied to the strategies, policies, and political choices of the V4 countries, which have themselves undergone profound transformation since the 1990s.