The role of Ukrainians abroad in countering Russian aggression and in the reconstruction of Ukraine

Ukrainians all over the world united to protect their country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, strengthen the international coalition to counter Russian aggression. Promoting the national interests of Ukraine and ensuring international support for the people of Ukraine became the main task of Ukrainians abroad. The security environment of Ukraine is rapidly changing, both in directions and in the hierarchy of existing and projected challenges and threats. At the same time the role of Ukraine in building a new security architecture in Europe and in the world is growing. The issues of identity, stability of institutions, flexibility in responding to a new situation largely bring the problem of ethno-political resilience of Ukraine to the level of one of the key factors of ensuring the security of the state and society and their further progressive development. In these conditions, the contribution of each actor that influences the strengthening of Ukraine's stability is critically important. The role played and will be played by Ukrainians abroad, the assessment of the existing potential of its influence and the determination of the ways and mechanisms of its use is one of the important tasks that require appropriate research. Such assessment should be based on reliable statistical data. Obviously, this is quite problematic, both in view of the need to analyze consolidated information of almost all countries of the world and take into account the drastic and multi-vector changes in migration flows in wartime. In particular, the data that until recently were considered objective about the residence of about 20 million Ukrainians outside the state borders of Ukraine will undergo a significant correction. According to UN estimates, the number of Ukrainians who were forced to leave their home country due to the war is more than nine million. A significant part of them has already returned, but it is obvious that some of them will join the Ukrainians abroad and create a new wave of migrants. At the same time, their connection with their motherland is objectively higher than previous waves. Regardless of the complexity of analysis in the conditions of drastic changes in statistical data, the task of determining the main goals and mechanisms of using the potential of Ukrainians abroad to strengthen the stability of the state and society is urgent and should be feasible at the current stage. Among such goals, the key ones for the analysis are, in particular: ▪️ maximally broad reporting to the international community of truthful information about the crimes committed and the consequences of Russia's aggression against Ukraine; ▪️ countering the spread of fakes and hostile propaganda, forming and promoting a positive image of Ukraine in the world; ▪️ promoting of Ukrainian interests in certain international organizations, alliances; ▪️ involvement of Ukrainians abroad in state-building, social, economic projects; ▪️ attraction of business and investment potential of Ukrainians abroad.