9. Ukraine Between Russia and the West: Russian Challenge to Euro-Atlantic Security

This chapter aims to evaluate the regional and global impacts of the conflict in Ukraine in relation with the challenges posed by Russia to the security of the Euro-Atlantic community. Relations between Russia and the West are going through a period of a clash of principles and interests at all levels which has turned into an asymmetric conflict since 2014. Some analysts even claim that a “New Cold War” has emerged between Russia and the West. Yet, the risk of such a new Cold War directly affects the sustainability of the Trans-Atlantic security architecture especially in the light of Moscow’s efforts to preserve the post-Soviet space as an area of geopolitical turmoil. It can be argued that by punishing Ukraine for its Western aspirations, Moscow expressed its geopolitical will to become a global—although an isolated and hybrid—superpower.