GREEN TRANSITION AS A FRAMEWORK FOR RECOVERY: REALIGNING LABOR DEMAND AND SKILLS IN WARTIME RURAL UKRAINE

Abstract

This article examines the challenge of aligning the goals of the “green transition” with the urgent needs for the reconstruction of rural areas in Ukraine amid full-scale armed aggression. Based on an analysis of international and domestic sources, the authors have established that green and post-war recovery priorities are largely synergistic – primarily in the sectors of decentralized renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and green construction – while simultaneously creating a conflict over resources in the areas of financing and workforce training. A list of in-demand “green” professions for the rural labor market has been identified, and the scale of the skills gap caused by demographic losses, internal and external population displacement, and the destruction of educational infrastructure has been calculated. Institutional actors – the state, local government, business, and international donors – have been systematized, and their roles in forming a unified system for matching the supply and demand of skills have been characterized. Measures for a just transition have been proposed, aimed at minimizing social tensions among unskilled workers in traditional rural sectors.