Volunteer movement is successful where there are strong heads of local communities - expert

In the settlements where local authorities have managed to establish close cooperation with volunteers, this gives a tangible result in terms of assistance, in particular, to the Ukrainian army and IDPs. This opinion was voiced by political scientist Ruslan Bortnik in a commentary to UNN.

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According to the expert, there are several factors that have contributed to the fact that volunteers in Ukraine have reduced their activity compared to the beginning of full-scale Russian aggression.

"The society is to some extent tired and has exhausted the resources for such large-scale volunteer work as it was at the beginning of the war. In addition, several times the authorities have shot critical arrows at the volunteer movement. There are also many scandals in this area. Many people are trying to instrumentalize this movement by turning it into their political platform. To some extent, this activity has been devalued in the public space, and this is a big problem," noted Ruslan Bortnik.

At the same time, Bortnyk is convinced that the volunteer movement is successful and develops in communities where it is supported by local authorities.

"Where volunteers work closely with local governments, especially with strong mayors and city councils, this movement has become professionalized and is currently extremely successful. Where this is not the case, the volunteer movement remains disorganized, unsystematic and unsuccessful," the political scientist summarized.

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In an exclusive interview with UNN, Victoria Volynets, a volunteer from Kyiv region and founder of the Gurtom UA Charitable Foundation, saidthat, for example, the mayor of Brovary, Ihor Sapozhko, is constantly interested in what questions volunteers may have and how to solve them together.

"We have maximum cooperation with the Brovary City Council. If I have any questions, the mayor of Brovary, Ihor Sapozhko, will always respond and support me, and we, in turn, try to help and resolve issues.

When they contact me, I tell them what's here and how we can help, and there is always a response. That's why we always have contact with the authorities and the mayor. And thanks to this, we have direct contact with the community residents. People come to us, write on social media, for example, to ask for wheelchairs or crutches. Recently, we received a letter from a mother whose son has a disability. We gave them a special medical bed for the child," said Victoria Volynets.

The mayor of Brovary, Ihor Sapozhko, in turn, noted that the help of volunteers to the city, the whole of Ukraine, and our army is invaluable.

"In many ways, it is thanks to people like Victoria that our country has continued to resist the aggressor for three years now. Sometimes it seems that people have started to get tired of the war, and are less supportive of the Armed Forces and IDPs. This should not be the case. That is why we, the authorities of the Brovary community, support the volunteers in every possible way. We are trying to solve all the urgent issues they have as quickly as possible," said Igor Sapozhko in a comment to UNN.