When the Ukrainian army went to war on Thursday, so did an army of volunteers and activists who for years have been supporting the country’s ill-funded Armed Forces, helping them with donations of cold-weather clothing, medical equipment. , radios and even food.
This kind of grassroots support for the military might not seem very relevant in a confrontation between the armies of two states, but it played a crucial role in the more limited Russian incursions of 2014 and 2015. And the dozens of well-organized groups of volunteers have the potential to resist Russian soldiers if they remain in Ukraine as occupying forces.
“We’ve been preparing for this for years,” says neurosurgeon Iuri Skribets, who works as a volunteer paramedic on the battlefield. He is part of the Hospital Medical Battalion in Pavlograd, eastern Ukraine, a few hours’ drive from positions occupied by advancing Russian troops.
In a brick shed converted into their headquarters, heated by a woodstove, volunteers spent Thursday stuffing backpacks and bags with emergency supplies, especially what it takes to stop bleeding: bandages, tourniquets and clotting agents.
The organization of volunteer doctors and paramedics has been operating on the front lines of the war in eastern Ukraine for years. To ease the army’s burden, they take the wounded military to a civilian hospital. It was with a mixture of anger and determination that everyone prepared for a possibly much greater task. “The whole world is weak,” says Skribets. “No one really stood up to Putin. And now here we have the result.”
One wall of the shed bears portraits of eight volunteer medics from the group killed in the fighting in the east — which began in 2014 but has always been limited to a small part of Ukraine, unlike the much wider attack launched by Russia on Thursday.
On a shelf beneath the portraits are votive candles and souvenirs: uniform patches, a small collection of bomb shrapnel, photos.
Over the past year, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government has sought to formalize the work of organizations such as these, which range from peaceful NGOs to armed and politically active paramilitary groups, forming with them a national group under military command called the Territorial Defense Force. The work intensified in autumn (in the northern hemisphere, spring in Brazil), when Russia began to mobilize its troops.
Together, the defense forces and independent groups are seen as the core of a potential insurgency against an occupation by Moscow.
“If the authorities in Kiev give up the fight, many ordinary people will be willing to resist,” says volunteer paramedic Oleksandr Isenko. The report asks if the medical wing of this movement has already drawn up plans to help wounded fighters in secret locations. “No comment,” he replied.
Anna Fedianovich, deputy director of the group, says that all medical supplies were donated and that doctors and nurses work as volunteers. “I don’t think our army will allow an occupation,” she says, but without sounding hopeful. Citing a statement by President Joe Biden before the Russian attack, she commented: “Russia has a list of volunteers and patriots” to arrest.
That means people like her. Anna fears that if the Moscow army appears in the city, where pro-Russian sentiment is common, members of the group will soon be betrayed by their neighbors. “Everyone has a neighbor who is willing to betray them,” she says. “I don’t know how I can stay here and not be stopped, possibly tortured. It’s hard to imagine staying here.”
