Resilience of Ukrainian Society in Resistance to the Russian Genocide
Authors: S Boltivets , M Stepyko 
Published: January 2025

The article highlights the foundations of the resilience of the largest communities in the modern world, which identify
themselves as nations, using the example of the resilience of Ukrainian society in resisting the Russian genocide. It was noted
that national identity is the main attributive, socio-cultural and civilizational characteristic of the nation, the civilizational
brand of the country and the state, an important factor in their legitimation on the world stage, the key basis of either the
separation or consolidation of society. The destruction of this identity is aimed at any war, which belongs to the events of
the highest level of danger for all components of both personal and collective identity. Among the variants of the destructive
impact of war on identity, the article highlights: comprehensively traumatic, which has totally negative consequences for
identity; partially traumatic, affecting either personal or social components; and adaptive, when a person is able to cope
with the consequences of such an influence. It has been found that a war that threatens the independence and sovereignty
of a country can, under certain conditions, increase the resilience of a society and the hope of a population at risk, despite a
reduced sense of well-being and a higher level of suffering. The consolidation potential and stability of the Ukrainian national
identity was embodied in the overcoming of the value anemia of civil society during the war. Resilience was embodied in the
heyday of volunteering in Ukraine, which coincided with the Revolution of Dignity and the beginning of the war in Donbas
in 2014. In an extremely difficult period, it was this movement that united society, created an effective structure of public
organizations, which took upon themselves the solution of the most urgent and painful problems of the state. The joint
resilience of the people in the conditions of war was embodied in activities aimed at preventing social tension by supporting
internally displaced persons and the most disadvantaged categories of the population; ensuring a dignified existence of
citizens who, due to objective circumstances, are unable to take care of themselves on their own; overcoming the shortcomings
of the state social policy, primarily due to prompt response and provision of effective targeted social assistance that meets the
needs and requests of a specific person; spread of humanistic and altruistic ideas and attitudes in society. Full-scale Russian
aggression also significantly changed the factors of self-identification of citizens: if earlier the vast majority of respondents
indicated the priority of family inheritance, then the consequence of the war was the preference over the inheritance of civil
union. An indicator of the vitality of the Ukrainian nation is the readiness of citizens with weapons in their hands to defend
the independence and territorial integrity of the country. For the resilience of a person in the conditions of war, it is important
to identify oneself with a community capable of survival and life, which includes all the people and peoples of the world who
help to preserve the life of the Ukrainian people and Ukrainians in the conditions of the Russian war.