Innovative Approaches to Regional Development in the Post-War Period: The Case of Ukraine

For modern Ukrainian territories, regional development is a multifaceted process that changes the social structure of the region, human behaviour, public institutions, as well as accelerates economic growth, reduces inequality and unemployment. The growing importance of Ukraine's regions in improving the efficiency of the country's socio-economic development is becoming more acute as the country's economy recovers from the destruction caused by the aggressor country during the full-scale invasion. Regional studies systematise and group the regions of the state according to the conditions and specifics of their current state and prospects for further development. Given the relevance of the chosen research topic, the purpose of the work can be defined as generalisation and clarification of theoretical and methodological foundations for determining approaches to the innovative development of Ukraine's regions in the post-war period. In order to achieve this goal, the following tasks need to be implemented: to analyse the current state of regional development in Ukraine; to group regions using the cluster analysis method; to formulate recommendations for stimulating and intensifying innovation activity in the regions. The study found that at the current stage of development, Ukraine's economy has quite significant imbalances associated with the uneven development of regions, which has been significantly exacerbated by the martial law. Accordingly, in the period of post-war recovery, regional authorities will need to focus on regional development and attracting investment in priority areas, taking into account the current state and potential capabilities of each region, according to its belonging to a particular cluster.