The scientific discussion of the international workshop "Key pillars of social sustainability of Ukraine in (post)war period", initiated by scientists of the State Organization "Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine" on July 2, 2026 in Zoom format, became a platform for conceptualizing a multidimensional model of state renewal, where academic discourse is transformed into effective mechanisms of survival and development. 

The expert environment, which brought together scientists from Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, the USA, Romania and Lithuania, focused on finding parity between acute social support and strategic preservation of human capital as the main driver of future modernization.

The central axis of the discussion was the report by Victoria Blyznyuk, Doctor of Economics, Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine, Head of the Department of Socioeconomics of Labor at the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the NAS of Ukraine. The speaker conducted an institutional audit of the factors of social sustainability and proposed the following fundamental triad of assessment that involves:

• the system’s sensitivity to crises,
• institutional flexibility,
• readiness for modernization changes,

introducing the concept of "adaptive intensity" as a key indicator of the dynamics of transformations.

The professional polemic surrounding this speech showed that the state administrative apparatus remains in a zone of permanent distrust, which provokes the emergence of "employment traps" and a critical discrepancy between the citizens’ education level and their real economic productivity. The participants concluded that ignoring this dichotomy nullifies recovery efforts, so the only alternative is a radical institutional reform aimed at the legal status of intellectual potential.

Doctor of Economics, Leading Researcher of the Department of Economic Theory at the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Tetyana Burlay, within the above context, justified the need to implement an integrative approach to resilience, based on the experience of the EU. The speaker emphasized that social sustainability is derived from the synergy of social, educational, financial and environmental policies, however, her thesis sparked a discussion about the risks of blindly adapting European models without taking into account the specifics of the Ukrainian military context.

International expertise on the problem was represented through a number of applied cases:

• Researcher at the National Institute of Economic Research of the Academy of Economic Sciences of Moldova, Tetiana Kolesnikova, demonstrated the correlation between resource transparency and the level of social equality,
• Gennadiy Ciobanu, Senior Researcher at the Research Institute of Labor and Social Protection and the University of Bucharest "ARTIFEX" (Romania), focused on strategies for professional self-realization of migrants,
• Virginia Jureniene, Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences and Applied Informatics, Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, Vilnius University (Lithuania), analyzed innovative mechanisms for integration and psychosocial rehabilitation of veterans. 

The practical dimension of the development of territorial communities was revealed through the "asset-oriented approach", presented by scientists from the Department of Spatial Development and Quality of Life at the Institute of Demography and Problems of Quality of Life of the NAS of Ukraine – Doctor of Economics Igor Bystryakov, PhD in Economics Dmytro Klynov, and PhD in Economics Natalia Korzhunova. The authors argued for the transition from the model of "expecting subsidies" to the strategy of independent inventory and capitalization of existing assets, which stimulated a lively discussion about expanding the subjectivity of local authorities.

The macroeconomic outline of the discussion was supplemented by Doctor of Economics, Professor, Head of the International Financial Research Sector at the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the NAS of Ukraine Olena Borzenko, who raised the issue of balancing defense spending and social obligations, while Doctor of Economics, Associate Professor, Leading Researcher of the Department of Modeling and Forecasting of Economic Development at the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the NAS of Ukraine Svitlana Shumska and Postgraduate Student of NAUKMA Anastasia Haidai integrated the dimension of well-being into the discourse. In particular, S. Shumska emphasized the need to develop measurable KPIs of the quality of life, and A. Haidai proved that in conditions of social turbulence, well-being is a complex category that accumulates security, psychological and social services.

Vasylyna Podlesna, Doctor of Economics, Associate Professor, Leading Researcher at the Department of Economic Theory at the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the NAS of Ukraine, enriched the analysis with the concept of social quality, positioning it as a determinant of recovery planning.

The methodological and instrumental support of strategies was substantiated by Yan Pidvysotsky, PhD in Economics, Assistant Professor of the Department of International Business of the Educational and Research Institute of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, who considered the prospects of grant support and innovative investment models.

PhD in Economics, Associate Professor, Senior Researcher of the Department of Socioeconomics of Labor at the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the NAS of Ukraine Tetyana Peregudova updated the discussion around repatriation, insisting on creating economic incentives instead of formal programs, and PhD in Economics, Senior Researcher of the same department Larysa Huk provoked a polemic regarding the precarization of employment and the need to legalize flexible forms of work.

The final chords of the discussion related to digitalization and human resources management were voiced by scientists from the International Financial Research Sector at the Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the NAS of Ukraine - Ph.D. in Economics Anna Glazova, and Ph.D. in Economics Yevhen Redziuk, who emphasized the importance of technological transparency and updating managerial potential.

The overall conclusion of the workshop was the conviction that Ukraine's social sustainability goes far beyond economic growth, transforming into a multi-level process of institutional renewal.

The discussion demonstrated the scientific community's readiness to abandon outdated bureaucratic patterns in favor of inclusive models, where the security and quality of life of the citizen serve as the main marker of the effectiveness of the state, while recovery, in the participants’ understanding, is a window of opportunity for building a highly productive social model capable of capitalizing on human potential for long-term progress.

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