Chains of insecurities: constructing Ukraine’s agency in times of war

This article maps how Ukraine’s international agency has been discursively constructed through juxtaposing and relating different insecurities triggered by the Russian full-scale invasion in 2022. How does Ukraine persuade its partners of the validity of its approach to these insecurities, what is the intentionality behind its strategy, and how do they contribute to the production of the Ukrainian agency? It argues that Ukraine’s agency is developed in the context of the battlefield, and therefore becomes a heavy loaded security concept with a strong normative background. By addressing numerous insecurities in energy supply, environmental and nuclear hazards, and disruption of food transportation, Ukraine builds the strategic narrative of the war as an intrinsic part of European security governance.