MILITARY VOLUNTEERING AS A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE AND ETHICAL PRACTICE.

• Author: Pankiv, Olesia

1. Introduction

   In February 2022, Ukraine became a victim of an insidious attack by the Russian Federation. Before the war, the socio-political and economic situation in Ukraine was quite difficult. The country could hardly be called unified; it was being torn apart by internal contradictions; government reforms did not always attract popular support; the unemployment rate was increasing; the country was in the state of a frozen military conflict with Russia (ATO). However, the war changed the spiritual atmosphere in society. The Ukrainian people were so stunned by Russia's injustice and cruelty that they joined forces almost instantly to fight the aggressor. 'There is no evil that does not work out for good' - a good Ukrainian proverb that clearly describes what happened in people's minds. Those who used to hold different views, including political ones, forgot about their conflicts and united their efforts. Moreover, it is worth noting that this unification of people happened rather spontaneously, and not thanks to the efforts of the authorities. A large number of volunteer organisations, both official and unofficial, emerged on this wave. Each caring person tried to help our defenders on their own. People were gathering, raising funds, buying, and sending aid to the army directly to the front (zero) positions. Ukraine has probably never known such solidarity. If earlier the phrase 'I am a Ukrainian' was very often formal, now there has been a reconsidering of who each of us is. We have got a clear understanding of what we are fighting for, against whom, in what country we would like to live, and what values we are defending. The cost of war has made people ask and rethink these questions. Standing up for our freedom has run the process of the revival of the Ukrainian nation. Unfortunately, history knows no other way.

   Volunteering as a unique phenomenon in Ukraine during the full-scale invasion of Russia on February 24, 2022, and throughout the entire period of the war has not yet been studied and analysed enough. Its uniqueness lies primarily in the fact that the war, as an accentuated spiritual state of society, has led to various manifestations of mass patriotism and national struggle, one of which is volunteering in all its possible manifestations. That is, volunteering has become a powerful mass movement covering, with no exception, all categories and layers of the population with a dominant militarized vector. Volunteers have become a special element of society in Ukraine, quickly and effectively solving a huge range of issues, be it assistance to forcibly displaced citizens of Ukraine or purchase and delivery of various types of weapons, ammunition, and food to the front. We would like to repeat that the key feature of the volunteer movement in Ukraine today is that it is a military volunteer movement. Volunteers do not just support the army, but they have taken on a very large part of providing it with the necessities. Food, uniforms, hygiene products, first aid kits, medicine for doctors, hospital supplies, thermal imaging cameras, drones, rangefinders, scopes and silencers, bulletproof vests, plate carriers, cars, tools, and fuel - these are just some of the requests that volunteers receive every day! They actually deliver this aid by themselves, risking their own lives. Therefore, we can say with full confidence that the participants in the volunteer movement in Ukraine are participants in combat operations (Titok 2022).

2. Characteristics of the volunteer movement in Ukraine after the invasion of the Russian Federation

   If we proceed from the most common definition, then volunteering is understood as a form of charity that is carried out voluntarily, selflessly, and consciously by individuals, expressed through the personal providing of works and services, based on the principles of legality, humanity, transparency, equality and is carried out to achieve socially significant goals. Volunteers are usually seen as people who give their time, energy, and expertise to help those in need without expecting any benefit (financial, material, etc.) in return.

   In 2011, the Law of Ukraine 'On Volunteering' (dated April 19, 2011) became the fundamental legal act, according to which volunteering is a voluntary, socially oriented non-profit activity carried out by volunteers by providing volunteer assistance. The Law of Ukraine 'On Volunteering' dated 19.04.2011 (The Law of Ukraine 'On Volunteering' 2011) determines that volunteer activity is based on the principles of legality, humanity, equality, voluntariness, gratuitousness, non-profitability.

   However, when analysing the manifestations and implementations of volunteer activities in the conditions of the war in Ukraine, we would like to outline the deeper aspects of the essence of volunteering (specifically, in our situation, this is military volunteering). Therefore, military volunteering can be interpreted as:

   * a dialogue and mutual enrichment (volunteers need to communicate with a large number of people from different layers of society, in different emotional and psychological states, with different needs and opportunities, etc., and this, in turn, expands the perspective of seeing a situation and perception, understanding and acceptance of the Other);

   * compassion for the Other and overcoming alienation (when unknown soldiers at the front or people who lost their homes due to an airstrike are perceived as near and dear ones and evoke a range of positive feelings);

   * a condition of survival during the war;

   * a creative approach to solving non-standard problems and situations;

   * a personal quality of a person with high moral culture;

   * a form of interstate, intercultural, interreligious, interethnic interactions (this includes cooperation with foreign partners, volunteers, and the diaspora);

   * a unique existential experience (which put a huge number of people in extreme situations and circumstances that have arisen suddenly and changed a person's inner world. Heidegger (Heidegger 1962) presents this experience through two modes of existence: forgetfulness of being (Seinsvergessenheit) and awareness of being (Dasein). Forgetfulness (or oblivion) of being is ordinary life in a daily environment, while awareness of being (or 'being there') is what a person comes to through certain situations, choices, and crises, defines oneself in the world, realises their responsibility for being);

   * the ontology of transitivity in the form of caring for the Other (can be traced in the form of transitions from ignorance to knowledge, from the lack of ability to manage oneself and others to the emergence of this ability, from irresponsibility to responsibility, from indifference to empathy and compassion).

   We can also present the differences between ordinary volunteering and military volunteering in the form of a comparative table (Table 1).

   It should be added to the aforementioned characteristics of the volunteer movement in Ukraine that its formation has been taking place not 'from above', not at the initiative of the authorities, but 'from below'. The active mutual communication of people and their communication with the soldiers have made for the prompt and effective response of volunteers to army requests. Since the army and the government were completely unprepared for war, the volunteers not only organised fundraising, but they looked for and bought everything that was needed, as well as delivered everything to the front lines on their own. Volunteers, by themselves, began to assemble first-aid kits for our soldiers. Realising the lack of knowledge, they began to attend various courses on providing first aid and figure out what should be put in first-aid kits and what should not. Receiving various requests from the front, they have to search for information on absolutely everything: medicine, ammunition, uniforms, drones, radios, cars, weapons, etc. They took over the supply of food and water. They do not ask what the state can do for them, but they do everything they can for the state. Such self-organization of society is horizontal in nature...