Today’s morning once again began with a Russian bombardment. Again alarms, again missiles and drones flying to Ukrainian cities, on residential buildings, on people.
Perhaps that is why our country has so many volunteers. We cannot sit idly by when we see others’ suffering.
Ukrainian volunteers are people who took on the greatest responsibility during the country’s most difficult times.
So it was in 2014, when we started to build the army, when there was a shortage of equipment, armor, gear. But volunteers did not wait for the state to gather strength. They took what they had, what volunteers managed to assemble, and went on buses to the East. Some straight from Maidan. Some from university or work.
That’s how the volunteer movement was born. That’s how the Medical Volunteer Battalion Hospitallers • Hospitallers Paramedics emerged, who have been saving the wounded for many years. That’s how the Ukrainian Volunteer Army was formed. That’s how volunteers stood in battle at Donetsk airport and showed what Ukrainian resilience, character, and readiness to stand to the end are. That’s how they fought in the very beginning, until we revived the army.
It was the same on February 24, 2022. Thousands of people volunteered again. I remember the oath at Lavrska — now it’s Ivan Mazepa Street, when people, without waiting for separate instructions or guarantees, went to defend Kyiv and Ukraine. I remember the heroism of the volunteers in Lilac Grove. Those who gave their lives for the defense of Kherson, not only without waiting for government actions but often contrary to them. I remember the eyes of hundreds of volunteers I met over these years at the front. Burning, tired, full of pain, honest.
Over the years the battles have become even fiercer. The losses — even more painful. Volunteers are still where it’s hardest. One does not become a volunteer by appointment. One becomes by the call of the heart. When the love for Ukraine is stronger than fear.
Thank you to all Ukrainian volunteers!
March 14. Volunteer Day.
We witnessed a miracle when thousands of people rose up themselves to defend Ukraine. An enemy simply attacked our land. And people went to defend it, not by coercion, but because it was necessary.
I saw it. The war clearly showed who was worth what. Who was only able to talk nicely, and who voluntarily went to work. To fight.
In ’14, I wasn’t drafted — I went to Mariupol with volunteers on my own, by choice. In ’22, I didn’t visit the Territorial Center for Recruitment; the staff office of the combat brigade registered me for service because I was already piloting UAVs.
We went on our own. It was our choice. We supported different political forces. We had different views. But Ukraine united us all.
I want to wish everyone who chose the path of defender and voluntarily risked their lives and health, to build the life they dream of after the war. The life they fought for. And who cares what moralists and various know-it-alls will say. They didn’t eat dust in the trenches with us or sludge through the mud.
We chose on our own. And we will choose again.
Happy Volunteer Day.
Today, without the cheap pomp about a “genetic code” and cards with flowers.
Volunteer Day isn’t a holiday with parades; it’s about a cold choice in a moment of maximum chaos.
What drove a civilian to don a dirty camouflage or uniform and pick up a rifle?
Three simple things, the basic settings of a normal person: love for one’s own, a sense of duty, and a deep instinct to protect loved ones.
You take a step into the fog and uncertainty just when the rest are still blinking and waiting for everything to resolve itself.
That’s how it was in 2014. When the regular army was just coming out of a coma and forming BTGs over weeks, this symbiosis of career military and volunteers became the shield that the enemy broke their teeth on. They took the first blow, buying time for everyone else.
This led to 320,000 veterans who went through ATO/OOS, and they became the rebar that bonded tens of thousands of volunteers in 2022 into a machine that ground thousands of tanks.
War works as the harshest but most effective social elevator.
Budanov, in his recent posts, for example, says very practical things: look at who’s driving the processes now.
Yesterday’s IT specialists, managers, actors, and analysts became tough and experienced commanders. The social elevator as it is — battalion commanders, brigade commanders from entirely civilian backgrounds.
They brought to the cumbersome military machine what it critically lacked — innovation and the ability to make decisions not according to the charter, but with sense and results. The civilian background fundamentally changed the modern army, giving it flexibility that regularly drives the enemy mad.
But each such innovation and each reclaimed meter has been paid for at the highest cost. Many stayed there forever. We remember each one. Not with tears, but with cold rage and the understanding that their names are literally the rebar in the foundation of our state.
We will repay, and the enemy settles this account every day — with burning factories, destroyed workshops, and their children’s future burned in the ashes of war.
Currently, it’s a long game, and here only the diplomacy of strength works. This is the only effective scheme. No one will negotiate with you if you are weak. Every success on the ground, every destroyed column or factory taken out—these are concrete arguments that translate into a strong position.
And most importantly, the state is finally fighting for its own. The promise to bring every volunteer out of captivity is not just words for the press, but daily invisible operational work carried out by specialists. That’s why exchanges of those who gave everything they had to the country are happening.
Honor to all who did not wait for notification groups and seven summonses at their place of residence. You have carried Ukraine on your shoulders, health, and nerves. Few countries on the globe could do the same.
It was a long time ago… on the morning of March 2, 2014. A sleepless night when you feel yourself going gray. In the morning, you quickly pack a bag with shaking hands because you know the military office will call soon. What’s the point in delaying?
Leaving the apartment is scary. But staying home and jumping at every sound behind the door is a thousand times scarier. It will eventually drive you mad.
You throw in a thermal shirt and fleece bought for fishing. An extra pair of warm socks. What else? Don’t forget the military ID. Spoon, cup? Nonsense. Okay, let them be. But it was more important not to forget your head, as the teacher used to say at school. Because what was going on in that head is hard to describe in words.
Then life was instantly divided into before and after…
It doesn’t matter when you made this step. In 2014, 2015… In February 2022 or the summer of 2024. What matters is finding the strength in yourself to voluntarily make THIS step. Just… one… step! And hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens made this step!
Photo: Third Army Corps
