The European Union (EU) is mobilising a team of specialists, the Cyber Rapid Response Team (CRRT), to back up Ukrainian cybersecurity efforts during the current conflict. As the country is fighting on many fronts, this measure intends to strengthen the Ukrainian response to cyber-attacks by employing European expertise and capabilities.
Recently, NATO activated the Alliance’s Response Force (NRF) for collective defence and deterrence for the first time. This measure comes as a response to “Russia’s massive military build-up” says NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. As Russia pushes deeper into Ukraine, units of the NRF, led by France, have already arrived in Romania and remain on high alert.
The outbreak of war in Ukraine has opened a new era in the history of the modern world, particularly in the European landscape. The actions of Russia have led the West to question its means of coping with such aggressive policies.
In today’s age of social media and Generation Z (Gen Z) "taking over" the world, there is a new modern approach to military defence. Ordinary citizens record military activities on their phones and post videos on social media. The social media app TikTok, which is often associated with dance trends, is currently being used to watch a very different kind of choreography: the movement of military forces that could be on the brink of a new severe conflict on European soil (Britton and Mulligan, 2022). The app has recently come into the spotlight as tensions between Russia and Ukraine have led to what could be called "the first TikTok conflict" (Bowman, 2022). Videos of Russian troops gathering at the borders of Ukraine are widely distributed on TikTok (Sonne et al., 2022).
Czech and European news outlets reported that the current crisis unfolding between Ukraine and Russia is forcing a company that produces Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to halt their branch in the latter country. The company in question is the Czechia based Primoco UAV, which has business manufacturing drones. With Czechia being a NATO and EU member, as the crisis began, the company has faced several challenges in Russia and decided to shut down its operations at the end of January. As of now, Primoco UAV is still in business but not in Russia. After the halt, their Russian subsidiary AO Primoco BPLA was sold to Russian buyers.
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