According to military strength rankings, Russia holds the second strongest military in the world. On paper, Ukraine's military budget is smaller than that of city-state Singapore, as approximated by The Economist. Despite these limitations, Ukrainian Army held off attacks throughout the first days of the Russian invasion, thwarting Russia's initial Blitzkrieg plan. How was such an achievement possible?
Part of the answer lies in the Ukrainian people's colossal ability to self-organize. Immediately after Russia began the war, large numbers of Ukrainians began to look for appropriate roles for themselves to support the Ukrainian defense. In just 2 days of invasion, 100,000 citizens joined the Ukrainian military forces, mostly the Territorial Defense. Apart from this, civilians started to help their local territorial defense units by weaving military masking nets and preparing Molotov cocktails. On February 26, in Kharkiv Oblast, a woman burned an armored vehicle by hand with a Molotov cocktail. On February 27, people stopped Russian tanks with Molotov cocktails and traps.


Trending Now
"I often think about people who were here before me. Unfortunately in our recent past, the Soviet totalitarian period, thousands of my colleagues were subjected to censorship, repressed, and executed. That's why now when we work we do so twice or thrice as hard, thinking of those who were here before us and who could not do it.”

"While Ukrainians like to squabble in peacetime, now there is full mutual understanding, all reconciled."There is a Ukrainian proverb that there are 3 Hetmans (commanders) for 2 Ukrainians. People in Ukraine like to live their own private lives in peaceful times. The positive side of this is that decentralization is a perfect regime for such traits. But this is to be explored -- later on, in calmer times.