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Voices & Opinion

POV: Ukrainian Civilians Are Flipping the Script of Warfare

They’re working alongside their army to defend their country, at times even protecting the armed forces

“What’s happening today is just like we learned in books and films about the Second World War: forget about everything but war,” Maryna explained. It was November 2015 and we were sitting on the floor of a trendy café in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, where I was conducting interviews with wartime civilian volunteers. Maryna (a pseudonym) was 19 years old and she had been traveling to the front lines of armed conflict, delivering supplies to Ukrainian soldiers in the eastern Donbas region. She was one of countless civilian volunteers across the country supporting the army and people displaced by a Russian-sponsored war that began in April 2014.

In the past weeks, another Russian war has begun and the violence has escalated dramatically, leaving few remaining safe spaces in Ukraine. As President Zelensky explained in one of his daily briefings from the capital last week, all of Ukraine has become “a front line.” Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, the Russian military has besieged and shelled Ukrainian cities across the country, destroying homes, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure. While the size of civilian casualties is difficult to calculate, the gravity of the humanitarian crisis is horrifyingly clear as cities confront a lack of heating, food, clean water, and medicine.

Today, the Russian attacks on civilian centers have brought war to the doorstep of everyday people. As a result, Ukrainians have become central actors in the war. Over 5 million—more than 10 percent of the country’s population—have left their homes because of violence, with 3 million leaving Ukraine as refugees, half of this number being children. But, many others have stayed and acted with defiance in the face of the Russian invasion. Civilians have armed themselves for the defense of their homes with rifles and Molotov cocktails. Videos of individuals standing up to Russian soldiers have gone viral, such as this one of a Ukrainian woman telling a Russian soldier, “Take these seeds so sunflowers grow when you die here.” Or this one of an elderly couple chasing away three armed Russian soldiers from their property.

By taking on the responsibility of protecting their families and homeland, Ukrainian civilians have flipped the script of warfare. Typically, armies monopolize the act of protecting civilians. But ever since the war in Donbas started eight years ago, Ukrainian civilian volunteers—many of them women—have acted alongside the army to defend their country, at times even protecting the armed forces through their actions. Volunteers have grown to be a trusted force in Ukrainian society and a symbol of a powerful home front, viewed as central to victory in a war against Russia. They are at the heart of a contemporary Ukrainian sense of identity and community with a long history, an identity that has increasingly consolidated across the country.

These civilian volunteers are a direct threat to Russian power because their mobilization challenges the Russian colonial worldview of Ukrainians as “little brothers,” longing for fraternal unity. This worldview has proven to be disastrously flawed, not just by the reaction of the Ukrainian army and its leadership to the Russian invasion, but also by the actions of the Ukrainian people. In response, the Russian government has chosen to use its military as a tool in the violent construction of a reality that fits its ideology. Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians are not a side effect, but a targeted military strategy in an invasion aimed at subduing the Ukrainian people.

The sacrifice and defiance of everyday Ukrainians has helped draw attention to their cause. But what we see as “inspiring” from the safety of a society at peace are the actions of a people fighting for their survival. We don’t know how the war will end, but what is clear is that viral videos fade, headlines change, and societies inevitably turn inwards towards more direct concerns. If we turn away from the fight in Ukraine, we will become complicit in the gradual, violent death and disappearance of countless Ukrainians.

What can you do to help? Stay informed. Keep the conversation going. Speak with Ukrainians themselves, as well as with your elected representatives, family, and friends about what is happening. Donate money or supplies to verified organizations, or directly to the National Bank of Ukraine. And act with your feet by joining in movements to build awareness, such as local marches.

 Christina Olha Jarymowycz (GRS’19) is a Harvard Business School research associate. The dissertation subject of her PhD in sociology from BU: “Wartime Volunteering and Social Change in Postsocialist Ukraine.” She can be reached at coj@bu.edu.

“POV” is an opinion page that provides timely commentaries from students, faculty, and staff on a variety of issues: on-campus, local, state, national, or international. Anyone interested in submitting a piece, which should be about 700 words long, should contact John O’Rourke at orourkej@bu.edu. BU Today reserves the right to reject or edit submissions. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University.