Countries experiencing war or other global crises heavily rely on their foreign trade activities, as the export of goods and services contributes to foreign currency inflows, supports production, and sustains jobs, while import provides access to vital resources. In recent years, Ukraine and its regions have faced numerous challenges related to russia’s armed aggression escalated into a full-scale war and the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These challenges have resulted in border crossing restrictions, port blockades, and the destruction of transport and logistics infrastructure, making access to international markets much more difficult and putting regional economic development at risk. This article is dedicated to the analysis of contemporary trends in the development of Ukraine’s foreign trade and its regional dynamics amidst modern challenges. The authors emphasize the changes that have occurred in Ukraine’s external trade before and after the onset of the full-scale war. The impact of armed aggression and the COVID-19 pandemic on external economic indicators is examined, alongside issues related to the blockade of seaports, destruction of transport and logistics infrastructure, and limitations on the capacity of land border crossings. The article provides a detailed analysis of the openness of the national economy and its regional components, including regional characteristics, changes in the commodity structure of exports and imports, and the degree of dependence on external market sales and import dependency. Regional level is in the focus of the article, particularly the identification of the most vulnerable areas that require special attention. The authors outline the challenges faced by individual regions, such as the need to adapt to new trade conditions, the search for new markets, and the optimization of logistical routes. The analysis reveals that while some regions have managed to increase their foreign trade volumes, others have struggled due to the ongoing conflict and logistical constraints. Based on the analysis, the article offers several recommendations to strengthen the resilience of regional foreign trade activities and support their economic development amidst current global and local challenges. Key factors expected to influence external trade and the broader economy include global food prices, the development of logistics infrastructure along Ukraine’s western border, currency market stability, and the mitigation of risks associated with infrastructure damage caused by military attacks. Additionally, reforms aimed at supporting exporters and diversifying trade partners will be crucial in reducing dependence on ongoing crises and promoting stable economic development. 

Ukraine’s foreign trade, foreign trade activity of the regions, openness of Ukraine’s economy, regional import substitution, conditions of instability 

The war of the russian federation against Ukraine has provoked the emergence of new challenges and threats to global security, including social and food-, energy-, and logistics-related ones, etc. Therefore, the geography, structure, and logistics of world trade have undergone significant changes and continue to transform in the face of today's challenges. Ukraine, being an important exporter of agricultural products located at the crossroads of the main trade routes Europe-Asia, must adapt to the new realities of the development of the international freight transportation market. Currently, the capacity of the Ukraine-EU border section does not meet modern needs and challenges due to insufficient capacity of transport systems, checkpoints, lack of rolling stock, storage and transshipment terminals, etc., both in Ukraine and in the EU. The development of multimodal transport in Ukraine, including the necessary infrastructure (intermodal terminals, container warehouses, etc.), and the expansion of the list of transport and logistics services are among the ways to solve this problem. The article analyzes the dynamics and structure of international and transit cargo transportation across the customs border of Ukraine in 2014 - 8 months of 2022. The main trends in the passage of vehicles through the Ukraine-EU customs border for January-August 2022 compared to the same period last year are given. Attention is focused on a significant increase in the load of road transport on the customs land border of Ukraine in 2022. Prospects for increasing freight traffic on the Ukraine-EU border in the short-term and long-term perspectives are assessed. The terminology of the study of multimodal transportation in Ukraine is clarified. The peculiarities of the operation of the largest container terminals of Ukraine are studied. Improvement of the state border crossing infrastructure, in particular in terms of increasing the throughput capacity of the Ukraine-EU customs border, should include optimization and stimulation of rail freight transportation, restoration and increase of production capacities for cargo handling of railway terminals, development of a network of intermodal and transshipment terminals, creation of border "dry ports" and cross-border logistics hubs with the introduction of joint control by the authorities of neighboring countries, and simplification of border crossing procedures for multimodal and contrail transportation. 

international and transit freight transportation, multimodal transportation, transport terminals, container terminals, Ukraine 

In the search for efficient decisions directed at the stimulation of regional development and improvement of regions’ innovativeness and investment attractiveness, the EU regions have long ago started paying attention to local communities. In particular, Polish local governments are granted an opportunity to conduct an active spatial policy of investment attraction using various instruments. In this context, the industrial parks play an important role among the created institutes of the business environment, because they create advantages for local communities and businesses. In particular, they promote investment attraction, entrepreneurship activation, employment and jobs increase, material cost minimization, etc. At the same time, the development of entrepreneurship environment institutes requires support at national, regional, and local levels. The development will be almost impossible without the creation of proper legal, political, economic, and social conditions for their activity. The paper aims to define major stimuli of industrial park development based on the Polish experience, the economic structure of which is similar to the Ukrainian one. This will contribute to the development of the ways to boost industrial park development in Ukraine, especially in the border areas. For the matter, the author outlines the major instruments used by Polish local communities to boost investment and entrepreneurship activity in the framework of industrial park development. The scientific paper emphasizes the analysis of legislation on creation, functioning, and support of Polish industrial park development, and further perspectives of their activity. Special attention is paid to general characteristics of the condition of industrial parks located in Polish border regions. The advantages of each of them are determined and examples of their creation and development are given. The research resulted in the allocation of two groups of stimuli of industrial parks development which are the precondition, according to the author, of industrial parks becoming the instrument of investment attraction, economic boost of the territories, and entrepreneurship activity growth: the stimuli of development of industrial parks’ organizational structure (public financial assistance; information and advisory support; grans of European funds; international cooperation / partnership; independent spatial policy at the local level) and the stimuli of entrepreneurship development in industrial parks (infrastructure (physical and soft); public financial assistance; tax incentives; investment grants; financial loans). 

industrial park, regional development, border regions, regional policy, local governments 

The article outlines the tendencies of social and economic development of border regions in the conditions of liberalization of goods and services, labor, capital markets, etc. The main challenges faced by the border areas in conditions of unstable economic growth are revealed. The results of an expert survey of representatives of local self-government bodies on the causes and level of shadow economy of the border areas are presented. The influence of border trade on the shadowing of economic activity at the border is investigated. The directions of reducing the level of economy shadowing of the border regions are proposed. 

border regions, shadow sector, border trade, eurointegration processes