Research Seminar: Non-State Support for Ukraine's War Effort

Dr Taras Fedirko presents a seminar entitled 'Non-state support for Ukraine's war effort (2014-2023) and its consequences for Ukrainian politics'.

This paper is presented as part of the School of History’s War Studies research group.

About the paper

The paper will deal with an aspect on the war in Ukraine which does not get full public attention: the role of non-state support for Ukraine, and the benefits and disadvantages for Ukrainian politics. Since the beginning of the war, pro-government militias and charities crowdfunding military supplies have been central to the Ukrainian war effort as brokers of means of violence — and brokers of violence. Transnational networks in support of the Ukrainian state channelled resources inaccessible to the state (e.g. diaspora donations, supplies from global markets, fighters unwilling to join regular forces) to the frontline, shaped the dynamics of warfare, and shored up Ukraine’s capacity to exercise sovereign control of its territory. This assistance came at a price: the Ukrainian state’s efforts to consolidate its fragmented control over the means of war — by incorporating militias and asserting fiscal control over crowdfunding flows — implicitly recognised these networks as a potential threat to Ukraine’s domestic order and international commitments.

About the speaker

Dr Taras Fedirko is Lecturer in Organised Crime and Corruption at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow, and Research Associate of the Conflict and Civicness Research Group and PeaceRep-Ukraine project at LSE IDEAS. He is a political and economic anthropologist researching war, media, and oligarchy in Ukraine, most recently studying Ukraine’s informal war economy after 2014.

How to attend

This lecture will take place on Zoom.

Image acknowledgement

Image by Mykhailo Volkov via Unsplash.