Abstract:

In the context of an emergent multipolar international system, there is consensus regarding the decline in US hegemony. The period of unipolarity that characterized the immediate decade of the post-cold war is transitioning to one whereby the repositioning of States at the regional and global level is possible. The Russian periphery is the confrontation scene that demonstrates the disputes of interests between the Russian Federation and the western alliance represented by the United States and the European Union. As the leader of NATO, the US has reaffirmed its interests in this vital region that constitutes the post-Soviet space, opposing the re-establishment of Russian hegemony in the Eurasian sphere and encouraging democratic forms of governance. In this sense, Ukraine has become the centre of a geopolitical struggle between pro-European democratic expansionism and Russian attempts to keep a key actor in the authoritarian geostrategic setting of the region under its sphere of influence. This article aims to investigate the territorial dynamics of the conflict in Ukraine within the framework of geopolitical tensions and conflicts of interests between rival power blocs.

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