Mastering Civil Defence in Times of Conflict

Abstract

The hostilities, which originated in eastern Ukraine in 2014, escalated into a full-scale war on February 24, 2022, following the invasion by the Russian Federation. Hundreds of cities and towns across nearly all state regions were targeted by rocket and artillery fire. The most intense fighting occurred in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa regions. Over 5 million Ukrainian citizens were compelled to evacuate to secure locations in western Ukraine, Europe, and beyond. On February 24, 2022, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, signed Decree No. 64/2022, “On the introduction of Martial Law in Ukraine”. The Ukrainian civil protection system had to work in the new realities. After all, rescuers, by their vocation, are always close to those who need help and provide salvation to people regardless of the circumstances around them. The city of Kharkiv was in the active combat zone from the first hours of the invasion and the beginning of hostilities, and employees of the National University of Civil Defence of Ukraine, like all the rescuers of the country, accepted the challenge and started actively rearranging their work in conditions of constant shelling.