Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has reshaped Europe’s geopolitical, security, and economic landscape, with particularly acute consequences for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). This thematic cluster provides an interdisciplinary snapshot of these transformations, emphasizing the region’s role as both a frontline and a catalyst for broader European change. Drawing on international relations, security studies, economics, political science, sociology, and anthropology, the contributions examine how the war has accelerated European Union security integration, including unprecedented military assistance to Ukraine, expanded defense coordination, and rising defense expenditures. The introduction highlights the war’s devastating human, economic, and environmental costs for Ukraine, alongside spillover effects across Europe, such as mass displacement, energy shocks, inflationary pressures, and heightened social and political tensions within CEE states. It situates these developments within contemporary scholarly debates over international order, realism and liberalism, and the limits of aggregated European analyses that obscure regional variation. Collectively, the articles explore geopolitical repositioning, energy transformation, public opinion, and lived experiences of war and displacement, offering insight into Europe’s evolving political and institutional trajectory amid an ongoing conflict.
Sobolieva et al. (2026) studied this question.