Journeys, Infrastructures, Viapolitics: Ukrainian emergency mobility after the Russian military aggression

This paper attempts to combine forced migration and mobility studies via the application of the concept of viapolitics to study the emergency mobility of Ukraine's population after 24.02.2022. In reaction to unprecedented Russian aggression on Ukraine that involved indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, terror and mass killings on occupied territories, millions of people left their homes heading for surrounding countries or moving inside Ukraine. A specific feature of this forced migration has been the high and often circular mobility of refugees, who either travelled to several EU countries or back and forth to Ukraine. Since the air space over Ukraine has been closed and the car remains accessible to only part of the population, the majority of Ukrainians took the journey via trains which became a symbol of contestation against the oppressor and a sign of human agency limited by the war brutalities. Yet the trains have also become signs of separation from home, enduring temporalities and vulnerabilities. Following Adey (2016) the paper studies how mobilities are managed and lived at multiple scales through emergency governance contexts and conditions by focusing on the role of infrastructure and journeys played out in mobilities from and in Ukraine. The concept of viapolitics offers a perspective on how to study "life on the road" (Walters, 2015; Walters et al., 2021). Infrastructure and vehicles play a crucial role in a human but also an institutional struggle over borders and migration. The term 'viapolitics' not only underlines this link but also emphasizes that the assemblage between migration and vehicles and their mediation can be political. Looking at mobility and migration through the prism of vehicles allows to observe a particular mobility phenomenon from "the middle ", not from the end of the mobility process. This is particularly important to comprehend the route of individuals and communities involved in the movement in/within Ukraine under military attack and in the context of divided families when it is unclear when and how the 'end goal' of mobility may be achieved. Secondly, the perspective of a vehicle, orients us towards a transnational perspectives between Ukraine and its neighbours. Finally, means of transport may determine access to certain rights and privileges and, as such, are closely tied to migration policies at the structural level and other political claims.