Vinnytsia as a Volunteer Hub: The Citizens’ Self-Organization in the Conditions of a Large-Scale Russian Invasion

Abstract

The article is based on the interviews recorded by the authoress during September-December, 2023. The volunteer movement as a socio-political and cultural phenomenon is investigated. The interviews have been conducted in Vinnytsia and agglomeration. Vinnytsia has already turned into a volunteer hub in the first days of the full-scale invasion. Aggressive war tactics and the general Ukrainophobic narrative in the Russian information space have increased the pro-Ukrainian percentage of Ukrainian citizens who treated the Russian Federation and its inhabitants, if not positively, then at least loyally, before the full-scale invasion of the Russians. Therefore, the percentage of Vinnytsia citizens, involved in certain types of volunteer movement is increasing steadily. The citizens are attracted to volunteer initiatives through information announcements on Internet platforms and even published in places of mass gathering of people. Private volunteer initiatives of ordinary city rezidents become significant and more eloquent. Not having the financial capabilities as large businesses, private ideas are focused on the following types of volunteer activities: the collection of donations for the needs of the military through charitable auctions; weaving camouflage nets, sewing kikimores and textile; formation of product kits; production of Hindenburg lights and matches; knitting warm things (primarily socks). Wide coverage of volunteer initiatives and the results of their implementation in the media attracts a larger number of citizens to volunteer movement, crystallizing and strengthening the foundation of civil society with pan-European democratic values. Public activists and volunteers have become the embodiment of moral virtues and a vector of value orientations in Ukrainian society in less than two years of large-scale military operations. A sense of involvement in the country’s defense through a volunteer movement consolidates the nation and to some extent contributes to the processes of self-identification. Today the volunteer movement in Ukraine is a new reality of modern everyday life of Ukrainians in the conditions of war.