UKRAINIAN MILITARY-HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE DISCOURSE OF THE RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN WARS

The purpose of this article is to analyze the academic findings concerning the study of the Russian-Ukrainian wars, which will help to determine the extent of scholarly am in at ion of this issue, identify the general characteristic sand specific features of the historically concrete wars waged by Russia against Ukraine, and reveal the reasons behind Ukraine’s historical defeats in its wars with Russia. To address the research objectives, historical and systemic-situation al methods were employed, along with methods of generalization and systematization. It has been found that sign if cant reasons behind Ukraine’s historical defeats in wars with Russia include: the weakness of the ruling elite in Ukraine an distend ency to make concessions to Russian tsars and Kremlin tyrants; internal discord among Ukrainians, which was typically provoked by Russia and skillfully exploited to inflict defeat son the Ukrainian state. It is proven that the historical roots of the conflict-generating nature of Russian-Ukrainian relations lie in the phenomenon of “Russian violence” (russkoe nasilie), which serves as the conceptual foundation for Russia’s methods of expansion and forms of aggression (direct and in direct), as well as its strategies fo reestablishing geopolitical control over Ukraine as a target-state of aggression. It is established that in the current Russian-Ukrainian war, Russia predominant lye m ploys methods of “hot” warfare that were tested in previous wars. At the same time, Russian strategists logically integrate these “hot war” method sin to a broader hybrid war strategy. In this strategy, various models of threats to Ukraine’s state sovereignty are implemented, such as: the threat model of political destabilization by separatist and terrorist organizations under Kremlin leadership; and the three at model of regional destabilization of the Ukrainian state following a Yugoslav scenario. The methods of “hot” war fare are being use din full scale during the ongoing total Russian-Ukrainian war.