This chapter by Ivan Savchuk, an associate researcher at Géographie-cités, forms part of a forthcoming volume entitled: Ports in the Polycrisis: Navigating Geopolitical, Ecological, and Institutional Challenges
Abstract of the chapter
The Russian–Ukrainian war is to be divided into two phases. The initial phase of the war was characterised by a hybrid approach, which commenced with the annexation of Crimea. The second instance of aggression was characterised by a full-scale attack on Ukraine, which commenced on 24 February 2022. The initial phase of the Russian invasion entailed the annexation of Crimea, a strategic move that effectively severed the economic ties of the Crimean seaports. Furthermore, separatist control over parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions had a significant impact on Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov. Consequently, goods flow was redirected towards the ports of Greater Odessa and Mykolaïv. During this period, grain exports became the dominant commodity in port turnover. In the ensuing phase, the Russian military assumed control of Ukrainian ports along the Sea of Azov, subsequently imposing a naval blockade on Black Sea ports. In the Odessa region, only six ports remained operational due to ongoing hostilities. Subsequently, a new group of leading ports came to the fore – the Danube ports – which swiftly became Ukraine’s primary seaports. In consideration of the geopolitical ramifications of the war on their cargo turnover, the author puts forward a novel typology for Ukrainian seaports.
Ports in the Polycrisis: Navigating Geopolitical, Ecological, and Institutional Challenges
This book examines how seaports, once emblematic drivers of globalisation and growth, are being transformed by a convergence of geopolitical, environmental, and societal crises. Rather than analysing each disruption separately, it adopts the lens of polycrisis, highlighting the interconnections between supply chain fragility, climate transition, shifting economic models, and social tensions.
Contributors from geography, law and management provide a multidisciplinary overview of port mutations, focusing on geopolitical reconfigurations, ecological constraints, and institutional change. The book explores issues such as reshoring and national security, the decline of fossil-fuel-based port economies, conflicts over land use and infrastructure, climate resilience, and the redefinition of port–city relations. By offering an integrated understanding of current transitions, the book provides readers with analytical tools to grasp how crises reinforce each other and reshape ports’ functions, governance, and spatial dynamics. It invites new ways of thinking about ports not only as infrastructures of exchange, but as strategic, political, and ecological actors in a world of accelerating change.
The primary readership includes academics and researchers in transport geography, port studies, maritime economics, political geography, environmental policy and public law. It will also interest professionals in port authorities, logistics, maritime industries, and policymakers involved in transport, territorial planning and the green transition.
Ivan Savchuk, a former researcher at the Ukrainian National Defense University in Kyiv, is an expert in economic geography. He is currently pursuing his research in France, at the Géographie-cités laboratory. He has participated in the Franco-German program Limspaces (2021 – 2024).
