Sustainable development of regions in Ukraine: before and after the beginning of the conflict

Research background: Sustainable development is the agenda for many countries including Ukraine, which adopted it at the national level and promoted through its regions. As the country is constantly struggling with the results of the military conflict and the impact of the occupation of its part by separatists, which led to economic decrease and emergence of numerous social and environmental issues, the transition of Ukraine to sustainable development path becomes especially important. At the same time, there is no official methodology adopted by the Ukrainian government, how to assess sustainable development of its regions. Availability of objective assessments would contribute to development of the relevant policy recommendations. Purpose of the article: The purpose of the article is to assess sustainable development of the regions in Ukraine and to show the dynamics of performance of the regions before and after the beginning of the military conflict in the East of Ukraine. Methods: We suggest the methodology of calculation of the integral index of sustainable development of the regions in Ukraine. This methodology takes into account the three pillars of sustainable development concept (economic, social and environmental) and uses the data available for all Ukrainian regions from the official statistics source. In order to determine the position of individual regions in the development of the Ukrainian economy and to identify certain groups of regions according to their level of sustainable development, we apply the method of statistical grouping. Findings & Value added: The conducted analyses showed the dynamics of indicators of sustainable development of the Ukrainian regions, the performance of the regions and their affiliation to the corresponding attributive groups. The situation and interrelation of the regions in Ukraine totally changed after the beginning of the military conflict in the East of Ukraine. The Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which are directly affected by the military conflict, became the outsiders among other regions in Ukraine, though before the conflict the values of sustainable development indicators had been above the average values in Ukraine. The leaders among the regions also changed, and the difference between the leaders and the following groups became significant. The results of the analyses allowed to visualize the dynamics of sustainable development of the regions in Ukraine and define the key directions for future development.