Ukraine’s war effort has been heavily dependent on the inputs of volunteers since Russia’s full-scale invasion. Volunteers not only contribute to the elements of urban warfare, but they create entire supply chains of materials such as drones, which the Ukrainian army has become dependent on.

However, the war continues to take a toll on both the soldiers on the frontlines and the volunteers supporting them. But it has also shown how important civilians can be in mobilizing a resistance to an invasion.

Preparing for Urban Warfare

Alina Holovko from Dnipro, Ukraine is the lead coordinator of Dobra Sprava, an organization that brings aid to civilians on the frontline and evacutes refugees, spoke with Frontsight Media.

"On the second day of the war, in the morning, I created a group on Telegram," Holovko recounted.

"I invited many acquaintances to inform them that we would be conducting tactical medicine training in the evening, led by my friend. We needed to do something because missiles were flying, and I wanted to gain experience on how to act if someone near me or I got injured.”

Holovko  said that only a few people initially came to the meeting

“Our small group moved to a room where we all agreed to try to make Molotov cocktails, just in case the Russians came to the city,” Holovko highlighted. She pointed out that everyone agreed to bring some ingredients and attempt to make a cocktail, agreeing to meet where cars were being repaired (a body shop) because there was a lot of oil that could’ve been used.

That evening, that group of civilians made around 20 initial pieces of Molotov cocktails.The next day, Holovko said there were three times as many people. At one point, they reached up to 100 people a day. Ordinary people across the city all wanted to gather to contribute to the resistance and people were constantly looking for new ways to get involved.

Taking the Lead

A group of soldiers also came to the warehouse and asked who was in charge. Holovko had mentioned that a few of the men had attempted to take the lead in being the person in charge. But, when the soldiers came over, all the men had stayed silent. After the pause, Holovko decided to announce her leadership.

"I was given a large warehouse and a place for cooking for our team. Materials, fuel, glass, and other humanitarian aid were brought because people needed to do something and help in some way. In a short time, we were able to perfect the cocktails. After a week, it became clear that we no longer needed to continue making these weapons for urban warfare, but people kept coming," she noted. The Molotov cocktails that remained were stored at a friend’s house in case they were needed in the future.

"We stopped making cocktails, and all the volunteers started shutting down all operations and sorting the aid that had been brought in recently,” said Holovko, She noted that at that time, acquaintances from Kharkiv called her and asked if she had anyone who could take them out from under the shelling. She found a few volunteers who were doing this.

"Miraculously, that day I met an old acquaintance, Anton, whom I hadn't seen for many years. He asked what I was doing, and I told him that I had managed to help with evacuating people. He offered to post on his Instagram account, where he had over 30,000 followers, so people could contact us, and we would help them evacuate," Holovko continued.

"From that moment, I became an operator, and Anton helped with the posting. The number of requests was so large that I could only sleep a few hours. I constantly looked for drivers, and that's how I met Oleksandr Dovhal and Vlad Shepel by phone, with whom we later did everything and continue to do so in different places where our help was needed for evacuation," she concluded.

“We weren't the best; we were just doing something to save and help people. People turned to those offering help (fortunately, there were many organizations and individual drivers like us acting alone),” said Holovko, describing how people would pass around their numbers to their neighbors and acquaintances who were looking for a way out:

“We united the whole country: some helped with information, some with actions, and some took people into their homes. Only through trust were we able to achieve all this; it was a collective effort.”

"A call would come in, and a family would be begging for help, but they were right next to the Russians," Holovko said.

"They needed to cross a little distance—just a street—which sometimes took until the next day to cross unnoticed," she highlighted.

"They would leave at night and travel through the Russians and bombard, and we would wait for them at the meeting point.Everyone risked their lives, relying on trust that they would arrive and we would pick them up,” she added.

Speaking on the condition of people who were being evacuated in the early days of the war:

"They were terrified, lost, and in complete shock. Many of these people had seen their neighbors and others killed in the streets," Holovko said.

"There was no connection and no way to charge their devices to simply let someone know they were alive," she said, emphasizing the dire circumstances. "People were just running with small bags along the road under fire, begging to be taken out of the city." Holovko said..

"These were the first months of the war; the Russians were crushing people with tanks and just shooting them," she remembered.

Holovko emphasized the bravery of each person involved:

"Thanks to brave people like Sasha Dovhal and Vlad Shepel, we succeeded. Vlad, a very courageous guy, would pick people up right under the Russians' noses. He could have been killed hundreds of times, alone or with people. There is no doubt that higher powers helped us with this."

Evacuations

"There were many times when drivers couldn't reach their destination because a rocket would land nearby and destroy a bridge or part of the road," Holovko explained. "During the evacuation, Grad shelling of the city would start, and there were many of these types of incidents. Some people sustained life-threatening injuries, and some lost consciousness and were taken away by ambulance. We often didn't know the further fate of these people," she continued.

"There were many dangerous roads under fire from the Russians (snipers or mortars). The occupiers constantly fired cluster munitions, and when aviation was involved, even an experienced soldier could freeze in shock, let alone volunteers. I can't imagine the reaction to such relentless terror," she said.

Holovko shared a harrowing experience, "When we were helping in Kherson after the tragedy with the Kakhovka dam, we were there on the first day, helping evacuate people by boat to the shore. The Russians continuously bombed the coastline, where large-scale help was being provided to people and animals."

"In 2022, we were evacuating people from occupied Kherson up until the day of the fake referendum (late September 2022). During this time, our driver was pulled out of the car and thrown into a basement, where he was tortured for many weeks. Miraculously, he managed to escape alive. Afterward, we were able to evacuate people again, but this time from the de-occupied right bank of Kherson," she recounted.

"There were countless people psychologically tortured and mutilated," she highlighted. "I once visited villages in the Kharkiv region and saw for the first time what the eyes of children who had been abused looked like. Later, I saw those same eyes in many different people, unmistakable, filled with unbearable suffering, pain, and indifference to life."

"During the evacuation, there were people so weak that they could no longer move on their own. The lack of food, water, and constant rocket fire had probably triggered a slow dying process," Holovko added somberly.

Providing Support

Oleksandr Dovhal at the outbreak of war wanted to join the fight. While the army said at that time, they couldn’t accommodate him, he wasted no time. Using all his savings, he drove his personal vehicle into Kharkiv city and was evacuating civilians while coming under enemy fire. Oleksandr continued evacuating civilians until he ran out of his own money to pay for gas in the initial few weeks of the war. Both Vlad and Oleksandr had their cars shot at by Russian troops while evacuating civilians. At the same time, Holovko helped open up a shelter in Dnipro that was able to accommodate up to 110 people at a time.

“The number of people asking for evacuations grew to incredible numbers, and I started looking for more vehicles and drivers. The church helped with this issue by providing buses and drivers. In May, we traveled with 8 buses (14-18 seats each) to all areas of Donetsk and even to occupied Kherson,” said Holovko.

By June 2022, they had created a formal organization called Dobra Sprava (good deed). By the end of 2022, they had managed to evacuate over 20,000 refugees.

Speaking to the impact that volunteers have had on the war, she noted, “Volunteers are like ants, each on their front, playing their important role. They communicate at different levels with the military, serving like media managers of these soldiers. They knock on people's doors asking for help to support different frontline brigades. How else can a civilian find out about the frontline's needs? Only through a volunteer,” she said.

The Impact of War

“The unity of the Ukrainian people has changed me. The people around me with big and strong hearts and the people who chose to protect, help, and act against evil at the cost of their own lives have changed me,” said Holovko.

“War is just a substance of pain and death. Everyone who has the ability must fight,” she pointed out.

But she noted that Ukraine has always been a country of free and independent people, each with their own understanding of life, seemingly nothing in common, but that everyone is of Cossack descent. “To understand Ukraine, you need to see the powerful kindness of people, which can only be felt by being in our country,” she said.

Fighting For The Ukraine That Was

As life was warped by the crucible of the front lines, the volunteers recalled their Ukraine, the country they had known from before and fought for to date.

“I had many friends who organized large-scale music festivals in various locations across our country—on the shores of the Azov Sea in the summer and in the Carpathians in the winter,” said Holovko. She noted that her and her friends constantly attended such festivals and different concerts, even in their city, as part of their everyday life. Before martial laws and curfews, Holovko enjoyed staying up late, spending time with family and friends and going out and about in the city.

Before the war, Holovko mentioned that she built a business with a partner and a team, and they made it profitable. She noted that unfortunately, those memories are all now a utopia in their distant feeling from the reality of the Ukraine that is. In the new Ukraine, the volunteers describe, it is only possible to do simple things.

“Everyone has someone defending our country, either a friend or a family member, and the feeling of celebration is frozen for everyone,” Holovko stated.

“We are all waiting to finally hear about our victory and feel that the pain and suffering are finally over! And we are free! We can rebuild our country.”

Lexus (callsign) from special unit “Kondor” of the 1st Presidential Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine is currently a drone pilot fighting in Donbas. Prior to the war, he was a software engineer in Kyiv and mentioned to Frontsight Media that he lived an amazing life in the capital. As a software engineer in Ukraine, he made over $100,000 a year, which allowed him a very privileged life in a country where the average salary is under $1000.

Only after over two years of fighting, Lexus was recently given some time off to go visit Washington D.C. for a golf event for Ukrainian veterans, a small human triumph in the forever march of a war that seems unending.