The Russian-Ukrainian border — emergence and sustainability

The article analyses the issues of emergence and sustainability of the Russian-Ukrainian border. Methods of analysis of sustainability of administrative and political borders by means of electronic cartographic bases of administrative-territorial division for different years are implemented. A section of border sustainability within the framework of the Geographical Information System (GIS) "Administrative-territorial division of the Russian-Ukrainian borderlands" and a series of maps demonstrating dynamics, sustainability and segmentation of the state border between Russia and Ukraine are developed. A general methodological basis for analysis of sustainability and emergence of borders with the use of geoinformation technologies is elaborated. A historical and geographical analysis of the formation of the Russian-Ukrainian state border is performed.The paper presents classification of the Russian-Ukrainian border into segments, a detailed description of the degree of sustainability and history of emergence of the state border. As a result of estimating classification, various values of the index are obtained, confirming the fact of differentiation of the state border by sustainability and emergence. Four groups of border sections according to the degree of sustainability are allocated, which enables structuring the historical and geographical description of the border and drawing conclusions on the origin, present and future of transboundary processes