As the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine draws near, the world stands witness to the never-ending and horrifying challenges faced by the Ukrainian people every day. This unprovoked war has unleashed unimaginable devastation: an incalculable loss of life, the destruction of entire communities, levelled cities and the disruption of countless futures.
I’ve reread news around the period of the second anniversary of the invasion, from a random day in February 2024. Here’s what one report said: “Russian attack on Odesa and Dnipro: Casualties and injuries. Russian kamikaze drones attacked Ukraine overnight. In Dnipro, eight people were injured, while in Odesa, three people were killed.”
One year later, you would read: “Russia attacked Ukraine with kamikaze drones, ballistic and hypersonic cruise missiles in the evening, overnight and well into early morning. People were killed and injured in Odesa, Sumy, Poltava, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. Many of the missile and drone strikes were programmed to hit city centres, critical infrastructure and residential buildings. Six people were reported dead, with many injured; there are still people under the rubble.”
Just two days ago, there was a horrific strike on an apartment building in Sumy. There are strikes every day and night, but this one was especially disturbing in its cruelty: three married couples were pulled out from under the rubble. In a single strike, Russia killed a 70-year-old man and his 69-year-old wife; a 65-year-old man and his 64-year-old wife; and a 61-year-old man and his 61-year-old wife.
Then a shocking video appeared of a woman trapped under a concrete slab and suspended upside down on the upper floor of her bombed apartment building in Sumy. Imagine seeing that and then going about your day. To work. To school. Doing everyday mundane things while placing yourself, your family and friends in that exact situation. Because we have no way of knowing who’s next...
Through the helplessness, the pain, the chronic stress and the exhaustion, Ukrainians not only live their lives, but they manage to do unbelievable, inspiring things. There’s not enough time to tell you about every single inspirational person, deed or activity, but I want to share a translation of a recent post on Facebook written by Ukraine’s Olena Chervonik, a DPhil candidate in History of Art at the University of Oxford.
Liubov Abravitova at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv on 27 January 2025. (Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine)
Olena Chervonik’s post
“Yesterday, there was a lecture by Susan Worschek from the University of Viadrina on Ukrainian civic activism. One of the best I’ve heard recently, both in terms of the volume of material gathered and the level of analysis and clarity of presentation.
“Ukraine ranks seventh in the world in terms of civic activity. Seventh! Many researchers are shocked because what Ukrainian society demonstrates doesn’t fit into standard sociological theories. Standard theories insist that high levels of civic activism are found in places with developed institutions of democratic governance and a certain level of welfare.
“To simplify, citizens participate in some form of civic activity if there is the infrastructure for it, created and maintained by the state. In Ukraine, there are no such institutions, but there is a civil society. And it is hyperactive, building its own non-state infrastructure for its own needs. For a long time, international sociologists and political scientists completely overlooked all of this. Hence, the forecasts at the start of the war that ‘Kyiv will fall in three days’.
“So, everything is fine with Ukrainian society. It’s the existing theory that is not normal. Only now, gradually, Western analysts are realising that they need to change their methods, rather than trying to force existing empirical material into methodological-theoretical frameworks where it clearly doesn’t fit.
“As for our civic activism and its uniqueness: first, the number of engaged individuals and its demographic breadth. If typically high levels of involvement are usually shown by people of a certain wealth and education level, as well as those living in large urban centres, in Ukraine, high activity is shown by everyone. That is, literally everyone — both the wealthy and not-so-wealthy, those with higher education and without, people from small communities — especially people from small communities, who even before the war started engaging in self-governance processes.
“Second, this civic activism of ours spans all possible spheres of life, from data collection, to environmental or animal conservation, to the development of legal advice and documents regarding the alignment of Ukrainian legislation with European norms. In short, there is no area of life that Ukrainian civil society has not engaged in.
“And while in some areas, citizen involvement is expected, there are others that are traditionally considered the exclusive prerogative of the state. Specifically, the army.
“The fact that the Ukrainian army is being actively supplied and built up outside of state channels right now is an unprecedented phenomenon on a global scale. Unprecedented, and therefore unmanageable.
“One of the post-lecture questions from the audience, from one of our Oxford professors, a Russia sympathiser to the bone, clearly manifested this phenomenon through her poorly concealed fear. This lady, barely realizing her level of contempt and patronising, asked: ‘It’s now impossible to impose some kind of “conflict resolution scenario” on the Ukrainians.’ I swear, she said it exactly like that: ‘impose a conflict resolution scenario’. Because the person still perceives Ukraine as some kind of illiterate child that all these international adults should be able to control. ‘You can’t impose it,’ agreed the lecturer. Because Ukrainian society today is incredibly agentive. And it is also very armed; outside of the direct army, it is armed.
“In short, one of the interesting aspects of the strength and branching of our civil society is a rather paradoxical point, namely: this strength is positive in general, but at the same time somewhat negative regarding the development of stable state institutions. Because civil society effectively performs certain state functions that the state now doesn’t need to develop. Because the resources, of course, are limited. And why try to figure out where to get them from if the citizens have stepped in and taken on the activities where the state has fallen short?
New type of governance
“Worschek emphasised this substitute function as something negative. After the lecture, I asked her if this is really a negative phenomenon and whether we can think of how civil society is functioning in Ukraine right now as a new type of governance, one that has just emerged. But perhaps it has a future — not only for Ukrainians but on a global scale.
“How necessary is centralisation of power from the top, and especially in which aspects? Especially when power can easily be usurped with vast sums of money — it’s symptomatic that our conversation took place during the American inauguration, with characters like Elon Musk, who are blatantly gesturing on camera. Maybe many functions of civic life don’t need to be governed from the top but instead function within this rhizomatic structure of civic activism, where specific volumes and the content of life activities will respond to the needs of specific communities.
“In short, we came to the conclusion that Ukrainian civil society demonstrates — again and again in our history — a type of anarchism. Not anarchism in its vulgarised sense, but in its original form — the absence of a single, centralised, coherent and often totalitarian organ of power.
“Perhaps the future lies in this rhizomatic, decentralised social formation? The irony, as Worschek pointed out, is that anarchism is hard to theorise. That is, again, the form of social life exists, but its scientific description still doesn’t exist. This no longer surprises Ukrainians — we are moving ahead of theory and history.”
Ukrainians persist with remarkable resilience. In the face of daily horrors, we continue to move forward. Whether it’s our heroes defending us at the frontlines or people far away from the war zone, working, volunteering, guarding their communities — they work tirelessly, contribute generously, volunteer selflessly, and fight for their lives.
The spirit of Ukraine remains unyielding, a testament to the resilience of a people who are not simply surviving, but determined to rebuild, restore and thrive. DM