Mobility Governance in Times of External Aggression: Ukraine and the Politics of Emergency

This paper examines how Ukraine regulates migration and human mobility within an emergency governance framework shaped by the full-scale Russian invasion. Since February 2022, Ukraine has operated under a protracted state of exception, with mobility and migration regulations becoming one of the central mechanisms in the practice of wartime governmentality. The article employs qualitative literature review and document analysis, combined with an abductive research approach inspired by Carl Schmitt’s and Giorgio Agamben’s theories of the state of exception, as well as by practice-oriented approaches to emergency governance (Honig 2009; Adey 2016; Dean 2014) iteratively linking these frameworks with empirical case of Ukraine. The paper takes into consideration major measures in the form of martial law declaration, freedom-of-movement restrictions, and state-led evacuation policies. It also demonstrates how mobility of Ukrainians is dependent upon policies of those of the neighbouring countries, including specific mobility regimes created by the EU. These mechanisms show how mobility is construed-constrained and organized in response to existential security threats, with the management of migration being positioned at the centre of sovereign decision-making. The analysis argues that Ukraine’s approach cannot be reduced to a simple model of suspension of law. Rather, it is a form of pragmatic emergency governance that fuses strong assertions of sovereignty and decentralized implementation by local authorities, civil society, and volunteer networks. This hybrid mode enables the state to retain control of population movements while mobilizing social resilience and improvisation to handle mass displacement. The Ukrainian case therefore complicates binary understandings of emergency governance by highlighting how migration regulation becomes an adaptive, lived practice within conditions of sustained war and uncertainty.