WAR IN UKRAINE. ANALYSIS SECURITY OF MARITIME CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE BLACK SEA REGION

The Black Sea is an area of significant geostrategic importance, bridging Europe to Asia, with untapped potential for economic development, strategic transit routes especially for access to energy resources and critical raw materials. Its critical importance is underscored by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine that has shaken the foundations of the rules-based international order and exposed the vulnerabilities of European and regional security. It has plunged regional security to its lowest point since the past two decades involve numerous crises of varied origins and nature. This indicates the shrinkage of forecasting horizon or even total lack of forecasting capability in the contemporary security management mechanisms, their inability to prevent low-probability emergencies of sophisticated nature, such as US terrorist attacks of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina in the US (2005), world financial crisis (2008), destructive earthquake and tsunami causing a Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in Japan (2011), events of the Arab Spring (2011), refugee crisis in the EU? War in Ukraine. Analysis of these, as well as the other large-scale and comprehensive challenges to regional and global security, as well as lessons learned from them and calls for a robust, coordinated EU response assure protection of objects, systems and resources critical for the existence of the state (the critical infrastructure) against all types of threats and their combinations. In this evolving geopolitical landscape, with the Black Sea region at its core, the EU is stepping up with a comprehensive approach with the aim of supporting the democratic resilience of a region vital to Europe's stability and prosperity and asserting our interests.