Today, March 14, is the Day of the Ukrainian Volunteer, UNN reports.
The event was launched by a resolution of the Verkhovna Rada in 2017.
The history of the military volunteer movement dates back to the times of the Cossacks and the Zaporizhzhia Sich.
During the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire formed the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, a volunteer force that later became the basis for the formation of the regular armies of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic.
Members of the USS also stood at the origins of the OUN-UPA volunteer military formations during the liberation struggle of the 40s and 50s of the twentieth century.
The history of the modern volunteer movement in Ukraine began on March 15, 2014, when 500 members of the Maidan Self-Defense went to the training ground in Nyzhni Petrivtsi, Kyiv region, to form the first volunteer battalion, which later transformed into the Kulchytskyi National Guard Operational Battalion.
At that time, Russia had already occupied Crimea, and pro-Russian separatist movements were beginning in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
At that time, Ukrainian volunteers played an important role in deterring Russian aggression. In 2014-2015, almost 40 volunteer battalions were involved in the ATO. Most of them later became regular units of the security forces.
On July 16, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law "On the Principles of National Resistance". According to the law, a volunteer formation of a territorial community is a paramilitary unit formed on a voluntary basis from Ukrainian citizens living within the territory of the respective territorial community.
From the very first day of the full-scale invasion, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian volunteers began to sign up for territorial defense units and other units of the Armed Forces. Not least, thanks to the volunteers, the enemy was unable to capture Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih, etc.
According to the military media, about 300,000 Ukrainian volunteers are currently serving in the ranks of territorial defense units alone .