From receiver to network hub? A time-frequency study of gold’s volatility connectedness in the Russia-Ukraine war and the 2024–2025 price surge.

This paper investigates how the Russia-Ukraine war and the unprecedented 2024-2025 precious‑metal price rally reshaped the volatility connectedness among gold, silver, US equities, bonds, oil, the US dollar index, and Bitcoin. Using daily data from 2018-2025, it combines the Diebold-Yilmaz time‑domain framework with the Baruník-Křehlík frequency‑domain approach to measure total, directional and frequency‑specific spillovers in annualized volatilities across pre‑war and post‑war subsamples. The findings show a marked rise in aggregate connectedness after the invasion and a shift toward shorter‑horizon spillovers, indicating faster and more reactive risk transmission. Gold evolves from a clear long‑term net receiver of volatility shocks to a near‑neutral, more tightly integrated node, while silver turns from net receiver to net transmitter, and US equities swap roles from a net receiver to a net transmitter of long‑run shocks. These regime shifts suggest that gold’s traditional hedge and safe‑haven functions have become more state‑dependent and less reliable under prolonged geopolitical stress. The results underscore the need for portfolio strategies and policy monitoring that explicitly account for time‑ and frequency‑varying connectedness in multi‑asset volatility networks.