Transformation of life support systems as an imperative for sustainable development and strengthening the economic security of ukraine

Анотація

The article is devoted to substantiating the theoretical and methodological foundations and to a comprehensive analysis of the transformation of life support systems as a strategic imperative for sustainable development and for strengthening the economic security of Ukraine under martial law. The study reveals the essence of state-level life support systems, identifies their key characteristics, and systematizes the structure of critical infrastructure sectors in accordance with updated Ukrainian legislation. Based on empirical and statistical data for 2015–2025, a comprehensive diagnosis of the technical condition, structural shifts, and financial and economic accessibility of services was conducted across key sectors: energy, gas and water supply, and housing and communal services. It is proven that under the influence of military destruction and exogenous shocks, the domestic power system made a forced transition from a stable centralized model to flexible, decentralized solutions with a significant increase in the share of nuclear generation (up to 52–60%) and renewable energy sources (up to 11%). The parameters of Ukraine’s gas balance are outlined, confirming the strengthening of resource independence against the backdrop of a sharp decline in industrial consumption, while critical security threats are identified due to the loss of over 42% of daily gas production resulting from shelling. The scarcity of water resources and structural-dynamic indicators of water use are comprehensively assessed, showing a more than twofold drop in total water consumption and a critical decline in irrigation volumes. It is argued that the progressive technical depreciation of infrastructure networks (which reached 70–87% in 2024–2025), along with the destruction of about 9% of the country’s housing stock and an increase in the communal burden on household budgets to 20%, form systemic risks for macroeconomic stability. Based on the results of the study, it is substantiated that Ukraine’s post-war recovery should be based not on the simple reproduction of what was lost, but on the deep modernization of infrastructure grounded in the principles of Logistics 4.0, increasing energy efficiency, decentralizing generation, and developing cyber defense systems. The study of complex transformational processes in the domestic infrastructure complex allows us to conclude that the stable functioning of life support systems is the fundamental cornerstone that sustains national resilience and the country’s macroeconomic stability under prolonged military and economic challenges. The statistical and empirical estimates of the parameters of the energy, gas, and water sectors clearly demonstrate a forced yet strategically justified transition from an obsolete, centralized Soviet model to a more flexible, adaptive, and decentralized architecture. At the same time, the identified trends of critical technical depreciation of core engineering networks, large-scale destruction of the housing stock, and the deepening of financial imbalances due to the growing communal burden on household budgets pose systemic threats capable of triggering cascading destructive effects in adjacent sectors of the national economy. In this context, a large-scale and coordinated transformation of public life support systems is not merely a technical rebuilding task but an imperative, with no alternatives, for ensuring the long-term sustainable development of communities and strengthening the economic security of Ukraine. The new recovery paradigm must completely reject the practice of merely reproducing lost capacities and be based on implementing advanced energy-efficiency technologies, deep diversification of generation sources with an emphasis on renewable energy, and the comprehensive reinforcement of cyber defense for critical facilities. Only the development of a financially sustainable, ecologically balanced, and technologically independent infrastructure will enable the balancing of the interests of the state and society, thereby guaranteeing the reliable protection of national economic interests and high systemic resilience to future external geopolitical or security shocks. Keywords: life support systems, critical infrastructure, economic security of the state, sustainable development, energy security, water supply, housing and communal services, infrastructure depreciation, financial accessibility.

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