The war in Ukraine is overturning the post-Cold War European security order and challenging existing conceptions of European identity. This paper considers the interaction between questions of identity, security, and the idea of the ‘post-Soviet’ in the reconfigured relations between Ukraine, Europe, and Russia since February 2022. It explores the ways in which the war increasingly represents a conflict between three different conceptions of European security: a Russian governmental attempt to return to a Soviet-era order; established NATO and EU ideas about the organisation and limits of security in a post-Soviet Europe; and a post-post-Soviet order emerging from the war. At the same time, the ‘Europeanising’ of Ukraine – a consequence of Russian attempts to coerce Ukraine into a shared neo-Soviet identity – has highlighted the ways in which the post-Soviet experience informs contemporary conceptions of Europeanness. On matters of identity as well as security, the war is ending post-Soviet Europe and challenging us to think about what comes next.

Dr Ruth Deyermond is Senior Lecturer in Post-Soviet Security in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. Her primary research areas are Russian foreign and security policy, particularly in relation to Europe, the US, and the states of the former Soviet Union, and US policy towards Russia. Her publications include Security and Sovereignty in the Former Soviet Union, and numerous articles and chapters on Russian and US foreign policy. Since the start of the 2022 war in Ukraine, she has advised UK and European parliamentary organisations on the conflict, and been a frequent media contributor and a regular commentator on the war for Prospect.