The article describes modern European trends in the development of higher education in the realities of military aggression (using Ukrainian experience). General scientific methods are used in the article. Using the comparative method, the key foundations of educational reforms in some European countries close to Ukraine (Poland and Georgia) were determined. In the article also was use the prognostic method. Additional research methods were retrospective, functional, systemic, etc. In the results, the Polish and Georgian experience of regulating higher education against the background of military aggression, the peculiarities of the use of distance education in wartime conditions, and media education are characterized as a key trend in the development of the higher education system in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In the conclusions, it is stated that Ukraine will need certain structural transformations in higher education. The Ukrainian experience of the functioning of education against the background of the Russian aggressor demonstrates that distance education is of particular importance today. The fundamental trend of the development of the higher education system in the realities of the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation is media education. The developed recommendations will be useful in overcoming the future crisis of higher education in Ukraine.