On August 21, 2026, under the chairmanship of the President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, academician of the NAS of Ukraine Anatoliy Zahorodniy, a solemn meeting of the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine was held, dedicated to the upcoming Independence Day of Ukraine.
Anatoliy Zahorodniy, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine, President of the NAS of Ukraine, addressed the attendees with an opening speech:
"On August 24, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, together with the entire country, will celebrate the 35th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence.
Ukrainian statehood has deep historical roots and is based on the centuries-long struggle of the Ukrainian people for their freedom. Today, in an era of global challenges and under the crucible of the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against our country, we keenly realize the true value of Ukraine's Independence as the foundation of the free national-state existence of the Ukrainian people.
In these conditions, the role of science is especially significant, as the state and society expect effective practical solutions from scientists to substantially strengthen defense capability and accelerate the restoration of Ukraine's economic potential on the basis of high-tech development.
It should be emphasized that despite all the difficulties of wartime hardships, despite the sounds of sirens, constant shelling, and destruction, scientists of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine demonstrate remarkable courage, unity, strength of spirit, and endurance. Through their day-to-day devoted work, they continue to strengthen our state, its security and defense capability, successfully working on solving urgent problems in all spheres of public life.
Each of us holds the defense on his/her own front, contributes to the fight against the aggressor and the approach of peace in his/her own way, applying all possible forces. Some of our colleagues hold back the enemy onslaught with weapons in their hands. We bow deeply to them and express boundless gratitude!
Currently, the Academy focuses its potential and efforts in areas where science is critically needed by the state: security, energy and technological resilience, medicine, and infrastructure restoration. Scientific research is successfully carried out in the Academy's institutions, which have already become the basis for important practical solutions. In particular, these include developments in mathematics, materials science, physics, mechanics, biochemistry, etc., which are already being applied in energy, industry, medicine, and environmental safety.
More than 40 institutions of the NAS of Ukraine carry out work within the framework of the Targeted Scientific and Technical Program of Defense Research. Among the key focus areas are solutions for unmanned systems, electronic warfare, visual data analysis, new special-purpose materials and technologies, which are already undergoing combat testing and are used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Academy's contribution to the country's reconstruction is significant: from remote demining and satellite monitoring of territories to solutions for housing and communal services, energy, industry, and ecology. In the field of medicine, scientists of the NAS of Ukraine have proposed a number of developments for the treatment of wounds, burns, rehabilitation, and implantology, which are already used in clinical practice. Fundamental studies by the social-humanitarian scientists of the Academy form a solid scientific basis for understanding the problems of the formation and development of the independent Ukrainian state, the establishment of the rule of law, democratic institutions and values.
Research by Academy scientists aimed at strengthening social unity, modernizing the political system, deconstructing historical myths, and countering the Russian World ideology are important elements of the state's information security of exceptional importance.
I would also note that recently, our economists prepared comprehensive analytical materials with proposals to improve state policy in the field of science, aimed at strengthening the state's scientific potential, increasing the effectiveness of state support for scientific research, and stimulating innovative development.
Thus, the results of the Academy's work, although not always visible externally, form a powerful intellectual foundation for the country's resilience.
I congratulate everyone on the upcoming State Flag Day of Ukraine and Independence Day of Ukraine! I wish you good health, creative energy, unwavering faith in our Victory, and peaceful sky above the head! I express deep respect and gratitude to all Academy employees for their devoted work in the name of peace and our future! I bow my head in unspeakable sorrow for everyone who gave his/her life to defend our native land.
Glory to Ukraine!"
Next, the participants of the session listened to two scientific reports.
The Economy of Ukraine in the Coordinates of Global Development was presented by Valeriy Heyets, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine, Academician-Secretary of the Department of Economics of the NAS of Ukraine, Director of the Institute of Economics and Forecasting of the NAS of Ukraine.
According to the speaker, the economy of Ukraine is developing under the simultaneous influence of exogenous factors – the full-scale war with the Russian Federation, the transformation of the global economic order, fragmentation of world trade, changes in international production chains, energy shocks, and increased technological competition – and endogenous factors caused by the structural features of the national economy, the institutional capacity of the state, the state of production and human potential, and the ability to adapt to the requirements of European integration.
Global experience shows that slowing economic growth, increasing uncertainty, and the spread of protectionism have become common challenges for countries with different levels of development. The USA, China, Germany, France, and Japan more actively use tools to support national production and protect domestic markets, and the trade confrontation between the USA and China increases risks for the global economy. At the same time, the EU's experience actualizes the task of overcoming the fragmentation of the single market, strengthening institutional capacity, and implementing a coordinated industrial policy. For Ukraine, this means the need to combine European integration and economic openness with the protection of national interests, support for national production, and the expansion of technological potential.
Over the years of Independence, Ukraine has gone through a complex economic trajectory, within which transformational changes and periods of revival alternated with crisis downturns. The dynamics of macroeconomic indicators show that the pace of development was largely determined by the structural characteristics of the national economy, external conditions, the institutional capacity of the state, and security conditions. The most destructive factor was the Russian Federation's war against Ukraine: since 2014, it deepened structural imbalances and limited development potential, and the full-scale invasion in 2022 caused the greatest decline in the entire period of Independence. At the same time, the country demonstrated high adaptive capacity, although it continues to function under wartime conditions accompanied by the loss of production capacities, destruction of infrastructure, labor shortages, significant reconstruction needs, and increased dependence on international support. According to OECD estimates, real GDP, which increased by 3.4% in 2021, decreased by 28.8% in 2022, and then partially recovered – by 5.5% in 2023 and 2.9% in 2024. Forecasted growth rates remain moderate: 2.5% in 2025 and 2.0% in 2026. According to the World Bank, the total cost of Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction reaches nearly 588 billion USD, approximately three times the estimated nominal GDP of the country for 2025.
Ukraine's macro-financial stability is largely supported by external aid, but this model creates a high level of exogenous dependence. According to OECD estimates, the aggregate deficit of the public sector remained significant: 17.5% of GDP in 2022, 20.4% of GDP in 2023, and 17.5% of GDP in 2024, reflecting a high level of fiscal burden under wartime conditions.
The war and its caused destruction give critical importance to the issue of developing Ukraine's human capital, actualizing the questions of its preservation, restoration, and effective use. Large-scale internal and external population displacement combined with mobilization, migration losses, demographic aging, and labor shortages in the real economy sector are currently the main challenges for economic development. Under such conditions, reintegration of veterans, support for internally displaced persons, and creating conditions for the return of citizens from abroad acquire not only social but also direct economic significance, as the pace of production recovery, investment activity, and budget sustainability will depend on this.
Moreover, the war has significantly changed the logic of economic resource allocation, increasing their concentration on critically important areas – defense, energy resilience, infrastructure restoration, digital solutions, and support of basic state functions. Occupation of parts of the territory, destruction of enterprises, energy and transport infrastructure narrowed the production base and disrupted established economic ties, causing the reorientation of capital, labor, and management decisions to new growth sectors. The development of the defense-industrial complex, digitalization of state services, spread of technological solutions, business relocation, and growing demand for infrastructure and energy projects create new opportunities for structural modernization of the economy.
In the coordinates of global development, European integration of Ukraine should be considered not only as institutional approximation to EU norms and standards but also as one of the directions of reorienting the national economy amid the transformation of global markets, production chains, and competitive environment. Its essence lies in creating such conditions for integrating Ukrainian markets into the European economic space that ensure parity harmonization, taking into account national interests, recovery needs, and protection of national producers. This requires combining the implementation of EU standards with the development of a balanced competitive environment, investment support, increasing technological capacity of business, and the use of effective tools to protect the domestic market.
Thus, the further development of Ukraine's economy must primarily rely on the protection and preservation of production potential, human capital, domestic market, critical infrastructure, and economic sovereignty. Only on this basis is a transition to a qualitatively new growth model possible, which involves restoring damaged assets, technological renewal, productivity improvement, attracting private investment, and reducing critical dependence on external support.
Anatoly Zagorodny. Academician of the NAS of Ukraine, President of the NAS of Ukraine, took the floor and summarized core points. Thanking Valeriy Heyets, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine, for the comprehensive report outlining Ukraine's role in the new global economic architecture and solutions for its sustainable, secure, and competitive development, he emphasized that priority importance is given not only to restoring lost potential but also to forming a new development trajectory that combines the protection of the production base, human capital, domestic market, and critical infrastructure with technological renewal and consideration of current challenges and threats to the global development of the world economy, and the specifics of Ukraine's integration into the European Union as well. According to the head of the Academy, emphasis on human capital as a determining factor of future development is also important, and the return of citizens, reintegration of veterans, support for internally displaced persons, and overcoming labor shortages should be considered strategic economic tasks. "Scientific institutions of the Department of Economics of the NAS of Ukraine should continue to provide analysis of global trends and their impact on Ukraine – in terms of economic resilience, structural modernization, European integration, development of the domestic market, and reducing dependence on external support," summarized Academician Anatoly Zagorodny.
Next, Yaroslava Vermenych, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine, Head of the Department of Historical Regional Studies of the Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine delivered the report on Formation of Ukrainian Identity: Historical Experience and Contemporary Challenges.
According to the speaker, one of the main characteristics of Ukrainian society is the multivector nature of its identification development trajectories. This is caused not only by the coexistence of different peoples and communities on Ukrainian lands but also by the presence of close interaction of various contradictions, value and mental confrontations, regional, social, and cultural conflicts. These conflict parameters act as certain markers of identification strategies of the Ukrainian society both in historical retrospect and in current realities.
The formation of Ukraine in the frontier zone as a specific area of intercultural interaction caused a situation where almost every region at some point in its history had a clearly expressed frontier status. The creation of the Ukrainian nation took place in a constant search for optimal models of interaction between regional and nationwide trajectories of historical progress. Today, these searches are complicated by military challenges, destabilization of political and sociocultural processes related to globalization dynamics, disruption of the traditional balance between conflict and consensus. The variability of value orientations increases, pushing the process of diversification of social consciousness to the extreme, and subcultural specificity becomes an additional factor of polarization.
In the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war, generating the foundations of state policy in the sphere of affirming national identity becomes one of the factors guaranteeing national security. Scientists of the institutions of the Department of History, Philosophy, and Law of the NAS of Ukraine constantly emphasize that the consolidation dynamics of any society is conditioned by a clear delineation of system-forming foundations by which the community is guided in building its own state. A necessary condition for consolidation is the representation of common ideas about the unity of the country, the establishment of clear symbolic parameters of its identity in space and time. What the society sees as the origins of its unity determines the form of its consolidation.
During 2022–2024, the Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine developed the Geopolitical Transformations of the Sociocultural Space of Ukraine: Features of Regional Identity Formation in Historical Retrospect project. In the process of its implementation, an analysis was carried out of the effectiveness of applying regional theoretical and methodological strategies to comprehend identification dynamics in the Ukrainian space, civilizational and cultural features of territorial development, complex interdependencies between national and regional dimensions of the historical process. Regional identity was considered as a form of collective identity representing practices of spatial-temporal identification of the society and value identification with the external sociocultural area. The causes of conflictogenic regional problems in Ukraine related to the specifics of regional identity, different sociocultural values, and mental stereotypes were clarified. The potential of regional history as a conceptual model for studying territorial specificity and spatial interaction in historical retrospect, conflict dimensions of regional identity formation, and strategies for constructive resolution of identification problems were substantiated.
Ukraine in the Geospace of Medieval and Early Modern Civilizations: Identification and Sociocultural Contexts (responsible editor – Valeriy Smoliy, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine); Ukraine: Historical Space of Identity (Yaroslava Vermenych, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine); Ukraine. Essays on History (responsible editor – Valeriy Smoliy, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine); In Search of Identity. Ukrainian-Russian Borderland in History and Modernity (Yaroslava Vermenych, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine); Conflictogenic Dimension of the Formation of Regional Identity of Ukrainian Society (Yaroslava Vermenych, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine) have been published.
Scientists of the I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the NAS of Ukraine published monographic works: Polish-Ukrainian Borderland: Ethnopolitical, Linguistic, and Religious Criteria of Population Self-Identification, Hungarian-Ukrainian Borderland: Ethnopolitical, Linguistic, and Religious Criteria of Population Self-Identification, Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderland: Ethnopolitical, Linguistic, and Religious Criteria of Population Self-Identification (responsible editor – Ivan Pater), etc.
At the I. F. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the NAS of Ukraine, Civilizational Identity of Ukrainians: History and Modernity (author team header – Oleg Rafalsky, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine), Concept of Ukraine's Unity: Origins, Evolution, Political Relevance (scientific editor – Tetyana Bevz), Russian-Ukrainian War as a Conflict of Identities, Values, and Ideologies, Socio-Political Solidarity in Ukraine in the Post-War Period (author team leader – Oleg Rafalsky, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine), and other works have been published.
Social-humanitarian research emphasizes that today, Ukrainian society exists within the coordinates of a culture of conflict, formed under the influence of the Russian-Ukrainian war and characterized by a high level of emotionality, polarization of views, and rethinking of established values. The war has become the main factor of transformation and radicalization of identification conflicts, actualizing the search for constructive strategies for their resolution. The culture of conflict will influence the social atmosphere in the country and the world for a long time. However, the task of social humanitarians is to represent constructive theories of balance and dialogue of civilizations, sociocultural consolidation, and interregional understanding.
In the context of searching for methodological strategies of such balance and dialogue, the Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine initiated the Formation of Ukrainian Identity: Historical Experience and Contemporary Challenges project, aimed at comprehending the integrated system of identification coordinates of Ukraine, based on three clusters: historical space, historical culture, and historical memory. Their interaction creates the basis for the nation's self-awareness through shared past, cultural codes, and preservation of historical heritage. Their synthesis builds the foundation for forming a consolidating identity as a process of stable self-consciousness of citizens, uniting society based on the commonality of historical space, historical memory, historical culture, and political views, despite regional, ethnic, or linguistic differences.
The realities of the Russian-Ukrainian war have brought to the forefront urgent tasks related to defining the role of the national state in forming conceptual foundations of consolidating identity, overcoming the civilizational split of Ukrainian society marked by the conflict specificity of regional mentality and differences in cultural orientations of Ukraine's population. Solving these tasks is entirely feasible since identity is not a fixed essence but belongs to the sphere of purposeful activity and positioning. Identity formation is conditioned by various factors – spatial, regional, historical, mental, sociocultural, informational. For many countries, this is an open and unfinished process but at the same time a guarantee of their democratic development and affirmation of civilizational values, representing opportunities for constructive dialogue and search for compromises. The mission of academic social humanities is to propose an ontological framework for generating consolidating paradigms aimed at forming Ukraine's informational and cultural security, protecting national value-cultural development priorities, and establishing information culture as a factor ensuring the country's state sovereignty.
PRESENTATION
"In the report of Yaroslava Volodymyrivna Vermenych, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine, the conceptual foundations of forming Ukraine's identity as a process of consolidating society around collective values based on the commonality of historical space, historical culture, and historical memory were analyzed", noted Anatoly Zagorodny, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine, President of the NAS of Ukraine, in his concluding remarks on the second report. "Military challenges caused a reassessment of established values and transformed the issue of identity from a theoretical discourse into an existential plane. Under wartime conditions, there is a transition from passive perception of identity to active construction of value orientations aimed at creating markers of national consolidation. These transformations serve as a powerful resource for social resilience but at the same time are serious challenges for society.
In the current geopolitical realities, the problem of forming Ukrainian identity should be considered one of the important components of national security policy. Its relevance is conditioned by the need to construct a consolidating format capable of representing a powerful unifying potential based on understanding the seriousness of identification challenges of the time and collective responsibility of society.
Academy institutions of the social-humanitarian profile systematically study the problematics of forming Ukrainian identity, make a significant contribution to studying the interrelations of culture and national space, global, regional, and local cultural forms that best ensure the holistic reproduction of social life in a specific territory and mark strategies for non-conflict transit of sociocultural identity.
An important focus area of social humanities is understanding the threats to Ukraine's civilizational identity caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war and the cultural and informational aggression of the Russian Federation. Scientists face the task of scientifically representing the evolution of Ukrainian geostrategy, origins and consequences of the complex intertwining of civilizational and geopolitical vectors of spatial dynamics, historical and cultural determinants of the emergence of identity conflicts, and algorithms for forming controversial practices of historical memory."
In conclusion, the Head of the Academy thanked Corresponding Member Yaroslava Vermenych for the interesting analysis of the issue and wished the Institute of History of Ukraine of the NAS of Ukraine and other institutions of the Section of Social and Humanitarian Sciences of the NAS of Ukraine fruitful work in this strategically important focus of research for our state.
Finally, the session participants considered several current issues.
Information is provided by the Secretariat of the Presidium of the NAS of Ukraine
Photo: Press Service of the NAS of Ukraine
