The Response Documentary #10: Wartime Mutual Aid in Ukraine
Short: For the 10th audio documentary episode of The Response, we're going to focus on the war in Ukraine. As the fighting grinds on, what kinds of solidarity and mutual aid actions are taking place in the country and in bordering countries to provide relief and assistance to refugees?
Long: In February, after a month's long prelude which many never believed would come to fruition, Russian troops landed in Mariupol and Odessa along the Azov and Black sea coasts, and Russian tanks rolled in through the Belarussian border crossing of Senkivka in the north. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had officially begun. A lot has happened since then, and what started as an anticipated speedy "decapitation" of the Ukrainian government, to quote the Kremin, has now revealed itself to be a war with no immediate end in sight. The impacts have been devastating to Ukraine and its effects have rippled out globally. And as the carnage continues, it's difficult to say just how devastating this invasion will be on the Ukrainian people in the months, years, and decades to come.
In the face of this horror, the Ukrainian people are not just fighting back against an imperial war of aggression, they're also coming together to take care of each other. Millions of people have been displaced by the war, both within Ukraine and as refugees to other countries — it's a humanitarian crisis on a scale much larger than the other disasters we've covered on The Response. In this episode, we're highlighting stories of Ukrainian resistance and solidarity. A small but significant glimpse into how the Ukrainian people have come together to survive the war, to strengthen their communities, and to fight for each other and their autonomy.
The transcript is available here:
The Response with Tom Llewellyn is a podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disastersEpisode credits:
- Host and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn
- Series producer (+ research and scriptwriting for this episode): Robert Raymond
- Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats
- Additional music: Death Pill, oh, deer!, American Football
- Original artwork was created by Bethan Mure
This episode features:
- Yaroslav Minkin – Chairman of the Board of the NGO Youth organization STAN
- Romeo Kokriatski – Managing Editor at the New Voice of Ukraine and Co-host of the podcast Ukraine Without Hype
- Yosh – Head of the NGO Feminist Workshop
- Joseph Bednarek – Senior Director for Global Grantmaking at Global Fund for Children.
- Ruslan Stanga – Senior Advisor at The Institute for Rural Initiatives in Moldova