The Russian term maskirovka can be translated as deception. Maskirovka has been part of Russian military doctrine since at least WWII and is considered to be a central part of their warfare. Maskirovka has been broadly researched since WWII, although not specifically in two of Russia’s most recent wars in Georgia and Ukraine from 2022. The Russo-Georgian war and the Russo-Ukrainian war share common ground considering the conventional sphere; the use of regular units and the methods used. This study has aimed to research how Russia applied deception in these wars, and finally compared its application between 2008 and 2022, all through the theoretical framework for this study that was drawn from Barton Whaley’s theory of deception. The study identified many similarities in utilization of strategic maskirovka; the most vital one perhaps a military exercise north of the border to both Georgia and Ukraine, disguised as an exercise but functioning to mobilize troops. The study also showed similarities in Russian attempts to control the narrative and portray the enemy as bandits, both leading up to the invasion and ongoing throughout the war. Notable is that the attempts in Georgia had effects that caused confusion and made important factors of their success. In Ukraine and the attack against Kiev, the attempts of strategic maskirovka were predicted and seen through by both west and Ukraine. Russia used maskirovka on a tactical level in Georgia and Ukraine as well, which may had effect on individual battles rather than the warfare in general.

This essay maps the security policy consequences of Russia's export of gas and oil to Europe in the years 2014–2022. The essay analyzes the development of the EU's energy policy, which dealt with energy transitions. The author also examines changes in the Russian Federation's security policy, military thinking, and military spending, as well as EU actions directed at Russia. The source material consisted of digital and printed sources that were processed using the deductive and qualitative method. To interpret the sources and create the narrative, the Peak Oil theory of M. King Hubbert, Benedict Anderson's theory of nationalism and the groupthink theory of Irving Janis were used. The results of the survey confirm previous research that emphasizes the importance of cheap energy for a modern society. The survey confirms that energy transitions do not occur in a blink of an eye, as well as the claim that the countries that import gas and oil become dependent on the countries that export these fossil fuels. The survey results show that the security policy situation in Europe has become worse during the period 2014–2022. The war in Ukraine can be seen because of Russia's changed military thinking and security policy, as well as the EU's inability to use powerful sanctions against Russia. During the same period, the EU underwent an energy transition and was extremely dependent on oil and gas imports from Russia. The results of this essay show that Russia's policy was primarily driven by geopolitical ambitions, namely, to make Russia a great power. Incorporation of Ukraine was seen as one of the intermediate goals. The sanctions used by the EU had little or no effect. What could affect Russia's ability to continue the war was a total boycott of Russian oil and gas. The essay's results provide a clear indication of the consequences of an ill-conceived energy policy. The result also shows how geopolitics, power and economics are connected and can affect humanity both locally and globally. The research results offer a broad field for further research in the energy sector, historical and political geography.

This study explores the resource mobilization of Ukrainian volunteer battalions during the 2014-2015 conflict, analysing how these non-state military actors strategically adapted without formal military infrastructure or state support to mobilize and maintain operational efficiency. The study highlights their innovative organizational tactics and resource utilization, emphasizing their ability to adapt and maintain combat effectiveness in challenging conditions. Utilizing the Resource Mobilization Theory (RMT), the research investigates the strategies these volunteer-battalions employed to mobilize resources, offering new insights into the role of non-state actors in modern warfare. This analysis addresses a gap in previous research which often uses narrow theoretical perspectives and consequently view these battalions as static rather than dynamic entities. The findings reveal that the effectiveness of the Ukrainian volunteer battalions was critically dependent on their ability to rapidly mobilize a wide array of resources. This was significantly enhanced by local and international networks, which facilitated resource acquisition and strategic operational planning. These networks also played a crucial role in legitimizing the battalions' activities and garnering broader societal support. Overall, this study contributes to the existing research by highlighting the pivotal role of resource mobilization in the establishing and maintaining of non-state military actors. It underscores the need for further research into the integration of social movement theories with military strategy to fully grasp the evolving nature of modern conflicts.

In this study, I analyze NATO's internal cohesion against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine. By examining the differing support levels from its member states to Ukraine, utilizing quantitative methods, I explore the correlation between the support and previously existing groupings within NATO. My findings reveal persistent divisions, suggesting that alliance cohesion has not significantly improved. The study offers crucial insights for Swedish and NATO policymakers, highlighting the strategic importance of understanding alliance dynamics during global crises. It underscores the necessity for policies that enhance unity and effectiveness in international alliances.

Maneuver warfare theory has been used to explain success in numerous modern conflicts and is extensively incorporated into contemporary military doctrine. However, during 2022-2023, the war in Ukraine resembled World War I attritional warfare, leading theorists to question the relevance of maneuver warfare in today’s conflicts. This thesis examines the applicability of maneuver warfare theory in contemporary conflicts by analyzing success in land operations in eastern Ukraine, testing Stephen Biddle’s theory, The Modern System, in a comparative case study. The result indicates that asymmetry in force employment, referring to one side using military means more efficiently than the opponent, leads to success, and conversely that symmetry creates an attritional character of battle. The thesis contributes with insight into the dynamics between maneuver and attrition in high-intensity interstate wars, highlighting the importance of flexibility and adaptability. The conclusions emphasize the need of further research on maneuver warfare in contemporary conflicts.

Denna studie syftar till att utforska och analysera hur svensk media presenterar internationella konflikter, med fokus på Ryssland och Ukraina kriget, samt Israel och Palestina konflikten. Metodologiska ansatserna för studien är en kombination av framing analys och kritisk diskursanalys med fokus på Faircloughs tredimensionell modell. Genom dessa två analysverktyg kan vi få en mer omfattande bild av svenskmedias framställning av de valda konflikterna. Den möjliggör en fördjupad förståelse av medias makt i att forma offentliga diskurser. För att stärka och stödja vår analys, tillämpades två teorier, dels diskurs, dels postkolonial teori inom Internationella Relationer. Resultaten indikerar att det finns betydande skillnader i rapporteringen om de två konflikterna. Detaljering av information kring civila offer i Ukraina tenderar att vara högre jämfört med Palestinska offer. Ytterligare en skillnad som betraktades, var den bristande benämning av historiska aspekter i både konflikterna, vilket tyder på att media väljer att framhäva vissa berättelser och ignorera andra.  Det fanns även likheter med konflikterna, exempelvis, användningen av starkt laddade ord vid framställningen av konflikterna. Detta tyder på maktspel som formar politiska och sociala attityder. En annan likhet mellan konflikternas presentation i svensk media var journalisternas sätt att väcka emotionell respons hos läsaren. De framställda narrativen påverkar mottagarens beteende, attityder och syn på rättvisa och moral. Slutligen, understryker denna studie vikten av medvetenheten om hur svensk media rapporterar om internationella konflikter. Det är därmed viktigt att fokuset ligger på en balanserad rapportering som inkluderar både aktuell och historiska kontexter.

The purpose of this thesis was to get an idea of how tourism in Ukraine and specifically in the capital, Kiev, changed since the major events in recent years. In 2012 Ukraine and Poland welcomed the big football event Euro 2012 where Kiev was one of the hosting cities. After that the tourist flow increased until the terrible riot that took place at the end of 2013. Among other consequences, it led to Kiev receiving a bad image internationally via mass media, which in turn led to the reduction of the tourist flow. This thesis is a qualitative study, based on interviews with two government officials who had given us an overview of how tourism is today and what government does to improve the city’s image of having poor security and threats to potential tourists in Kiev today. Interviews with both representatives took place on location in Kiev. In addition to that, we conducted an email-survey with 13 Swedish tourists who had not previously visited Kiev to get a picture of their knowledge of Ukraine’s capital. Based on the answers from our respondents, we had worked to obtain the relevant theories and previous research for further analysis. The results of this thesis show that nowadays tourism in Kiev is not a profitable industry and there is too little focus dedicated to this topic as well as the city's marketing, because of the ongoing war in parts of the country. Furthermore, there is no ministry responsible for tourism in Kiev, but only departments that are being constantly moved between different ministries. / Syftet med denna uppsats var att få en uppfattning över hur turism i Ukraina och specifikt i huvudstaden Kiev ser ut, då den ändrades i och med stora händelser under de senaste åren. År 2012 hade Ukraina och Polen välkomnat det stora fotbollsevenemanget EM 2012 och Kiev var en av städerna som evenemanget arrangerades i. Efter detta hade turistflödet ökat tills det förfärliga upploppet som skedde i slutet av år 2013. Det ledde till att Kiev fick en dålig image internationellt via massmedia som i sin tur ledde till turismflödets minskning. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie, byggt på intervjuer med två myndighetsrepresentanter som har gett oss en överblick om hur turismen ser ut idag och vad staten gör för att avlägsna denna image om dålig säkerhet och hot mot potentiella turister som Kiev har idag. Med potentiell turist menas en person som hittar något intresse för att besöka ett turistställe. Intervju med både representanter skedde på plats i Kiev. Samtidigt hade vi genomfört en undersökning då vi via e-post intervjuade 13 svenska turister som inte tidigare hade besökt Kiev. Syftet med e-post intervjuerna var att få deltagarnas bild av vad de har för kunskap om Kiev. Utifrån svar från våra respondenter hade vi arbetat för att få fram de relevanta teorier samt tidigare forskning för vidare analys. Resultatet av denna uppsats visar att dagens turism i Kiev inte är den lönsamma näringen och det fokus som läggs på detta område samt stadens marknadsföring är obetydlig, då det pågår krig i delar av landet. Samtidigt som förvärvsarbetet av turismen brister på grund av saknad av ett departement som ska vara ansvarig för turismen i Kiev. Det finns endast inaktiva avdelningar som ständigt flyttas till olika departement.

Since Russia's war in Ukraine started, EU decided to start working with European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) and Security sector reform (SSR) in order to build Ukraine into a safe, democratic country. Former studies have shown that EUs presence in Ukraine has turned Russia into an even more aggressive neighbor, which is why the object of this essay is to examine what EUAM has worked with and what the result of this work is. The study has been done through a single case study research with liberalism and security sector reform as theories. The result shows that EUAM have tried to implement a western european way of work, and have focused on reforms of institutions, courses and human rights. The result of EUAMs work is ambiguous; EUAM is happy with the work, but both the work with police reform, border guard and Security service have received criticism and has not fulfilled its full potential.

An annexation of landmasses or parts of another country is nowadays a rare case. However, Russia managed to annex parts of Ukraine after a violent and complicated conflict in 2014. There are several different theories and methods of describing Russian warfare and some of them even originate from Russia itself.   This paper aims to apply the Reflexive Control theory, which originated in Russia, and see how well it accounts Russian actions in Ukraine. The analyzation of this theory is necessary because after the annexation of Crimea there has been an increasing interest to describe Russian actions in the science of war discussions.   This is done by first describing different theorists’ approaches and views on the theory and then constructing a template from which this thesis’ analysis is concluded. There are four major contributors to the theory, all of which differ slightly in their description of the theory.   This paper concludes that patterns of Reflexive Control may have been implemented during the conflict in Ukraine. These patterns may also have been present before the conflict, after the annexation and up to present day. / -

At the time of this study the war in Ukraine has been going on for one year and three months. Russia invaded Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022 with the purpose of erasing the Ukrainian state and its national identity. The purpose of this study is to investigate how Ukrainian citizens view their national identity during an ongoing invasion of their country, and the war that followed that invasion. In addition to that, this study investigates if and how Ukrainian refugees in Sweden have acted to maintain their Ukrainian identity during the time they are staying in Sweden. The study is based on previous research about national identity, nationalism and identity. The study uses two main theoretical approaches: national identity as an imagined community and national identity in relation to ethno-symbolism. The study is a qualitative study that has used eight semi-structured interviews which were performed during a period of three weeks in April to May of 2023.After a thematical analysis of the collected information from the participants this study points to that the perceived national identity with Ukrainian refugees in Sweden is strong, and the participants feel that it has grown stronger since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The participants also describe a strengthened unity between Ukrainians, both in their physical context in Sweden but also with Ukrainians who are spread out in the rest of the world. According to the participants in this study this unity will continue after the war has ended, and this will have a positive effect on Ukrainians within Ukraine. In contrast to what has happened after earlier conflicts between Ukraine and Russia, the result of this study indicates that the positive changes that has happened regarding the Ukrainian national identity and community since the invasion will be maintained after the war, and this thanks to the collective memory with Ukrainians.According to the participants of this study Ukraine as a nation and Ukrainians as a people will evolve and free themselves from the Russian propaganda that has, both internally and externally, shaped the Ukrainian national identity. This will be done by the Ukrainian people, joining to tell, spread and preserve Ukrainian history, culture and tradition as well as the Ukrainian language.