Real Ukrainians: Yulia Savostina
She is a well-known Ukrainian social entrepreneur, public activist, and currently, a volunteer. Ten years ago, Yulia Savostina initiated her flagship project, "Made in Ukraine," dedicated to promoting the consumption of Ukrainian-made products. However, she now coordinates assistance to Ukrainian defenders, resides in Kyiv, and expresses gratitude to the Armed Forces of Ukraine for everything she can do thanks to them.
"Right now, we are finishing the collection for another drone for the 95th brigade. My younger brother serves there. We've already bought and sent one; we'll finish the donation collection and buy another," began our conversation with Yulia.
Ukrainian volunteers primarily buy drones because these almost toy-like quadcopters save the lives of Ukrainian military personnel. Drones enable them to see threats from the Russians who invaded Ukraine and have been waging a large-scale war on its territory since February of last year. It's better to lose drones than to endanger people. In essence, every drone is a lifesaver. However, Russians attempt to shoot them down or intercept them using electronic warfare means. Hence, many drones are needed.
She Moves People
"Right now, like last year, I am organizing the 'Warm Them Up' movement," says Yulia. Participants in this movement take care of warm clothing for Ukrainian defenders – they knit them and hand them over to the military. Women from all over Europe make warm clothes, buy threads, and organize this process. The movement started last year, and in 2023, Yulia relaunched it, supporting it at the proper level along with like-minded individuals.
"We accept threads from volunteers, from activists; we receive money and buy threads. Then we collect ready-made items and send them centrally, or people send them to the front themselves," Yulia explains. This autumn in Ukraine was unusually warm and long, but the genuinely cold period has already begun, so warm clothing will be useful. Who knits these clothes? Mostly Ukrainian women who either stayed at home or moved away from the war to Western Europe.
And this is just one of the projects Yulia and her team are currently taking care of. Where does she get such a powerful influence, and why do people respond to her calls? This can be understood by looking a bit into her past. Before obtaining higher education, Yulia Savostina started working in the media, including being a special correspondent and news anchor on popular Ukrainian TV channels STB and ICTV. Then there were several years in leading positions in PR agencies. But a significant turn happened in 2013 when she decided to live for a year using exclusively Ukrainian-made products. That's how the "Made in Ukraine" project was born. In fact, everything started from that moment.
Between Maidan and War
For Ukrainians, the year 2013 was quite significant but somewhat grey, if one may say so. The influence of Russia in the country was growing due to the policies of Viktor Yanukovych's government. So, to bet on promoting everything Ukrainian, you had to be either daring or very farsighted. Or, at once, a farsighted daredevil. The situation dramatically changed after Maidan in the spring of 2014. Ukraine experienced a tremendous upsurge in national spirit, making it fashionable to wear, use, and consume products of Ukrainian origin.
After this, Yulia Savostina was offered to prepare and conduct a festival, from which many things started, knowledge was gained and accumulated, societal impact was made. Then communities and institutions began involving her in their work, and thus, she achieved becoming an influential public activist.
Afterward, Yulia, along with "Made in Ukraine," started working on several more projects. "I called all my activity social entrepreneurship, but in pure terms, I am a public activist who was involved in the promotion of the Ukrainian producer, Ukrainian identity, Ukrainian authenticity, Ukrainian craft production. And that was the case all these 9 years before the start of the big war," says Savostina. This movement indeed significantly influenced the development of the market, opened up locally produced goods for the Ukrainian middle class, but that wasn't all. She also organized massive craft fairs in the capital of Ukraine and some major cities, where not only local producers came but also those from other parts of the country.
Later, she initiated the project "The Most Beautiful Ukrainian Village." In reality, it was a competition where local rural communities competed for the opportunity to receive grants to improve their village with the ultimate goal of promoting the comfort of residents and attracting guests to green tourism establishments.
Despite the fact that the war temporarily halted all this, echoes of these projects continue. Recently, as Yulia shared, one of the villages in western Ukraine reported on the implementation of a grant program. That is, even in wartime, people take care of their villages and do so despite the fact that Russian invaders are destroying the east and south of the country.
Another very beautiful and interesting project is called "Svidomo Made," aimed at promoting conscious consumption. Goals of sustainable development, recycling, conscious consumption – all of this was relevant until last winter.
But when on February 24, 2022, Russians invaded Ukraine, Savostina set aside her truly beautiful ideas and, together with like-minded people, started helping those in Ukraine who need it most.
"For Those Who Need It Most"
The initial shock that Ukraine experienced in February-March 2022 was genuinely a jolt to societal thinking and perception. As Yulia herself puts it, they engaged in anything that could alleviate something for the people. A significant part of her team's efforts was directed towards assisting internally displaced persons, primarily women and children. The flow of evacuees from war zones and front-line territories was staggering at that time. It measured in millions, even by official statistics. Almost a quarter of the population had to abandon their homes, heading either west within Ukraine or abroad.
Simultaneously, Yulia and her colleagues were actively aiding Ukrainian defenders because her husband, her brother, many friends, acquaintances, and relatives joined the military.
"But we stopped working with purely humanitarian programs around May 2023 and focused on the needs of either the front or civilians in front-line areas. Because even basic clothing and footwear there are just expendable materials. If a missile or bomb hits, things get lost or damaged. No matter how much warm clothing you bring there, for example, it still turns into rags in those basements where civilians hide from shelling," Yulia recounts.
She complains that fundraising among Ukrainians now takes a bit longer because people's capabilities are not limitless, and the economy is suffering. Yulia explains that for many, donating has ceased to be an impulsive act. People now allocate a specific amount in their personal budget for monthly donations, becoming a regular item in personal expenses.
Under such conditions, trust in volunteers becomes particularly weighty. Donations are sent to those they know, those who have been working for a long time, those known through reports on previous fundraisers. In fundraising, Yulia contributes what she knows best – creativity. "The initiative of our partners, the large exhibition and park complex VDNG in Kyiv, worked very well for us. They were supposed to carry out another planned planting of fir trees on their territory, so we proposed to our donors to raffle names on those fir trees. VDNG allocated 27 named fir trees for this," she says.
Ukrainian craftswomen, for that fundraiser, offered designer clothing, women's accessories, and much more for sale. This gathers quite significant amounts, which later rescue Ukrainian defenders. But it's not only Ukrainians send donations. "My friends abroad, friends of friends, distant acquaintances, and even strangers who see what and how we are doing send donations. They send them via PayPal. Some do it regularly, just according to schedule," Yulia explains.
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At the end of the meeting, Yulia said, "We had a moment when all the guys from the team, except for two who physically couldn't, went to the military. Our lawyer, our technical director, my husband, and brother. The guys who were with me daily in our projects, they all somehow went to war at the same time. This is the closest circle to me. I don't have people around me who are not connected to the Armed Forces or assistance for the Armed Forces. That's how it happened."
Yulia shares that she has removed from her circle of communication both physically and on social media those who pretend that the war does not concern them: "Not because I want to demonstratively suffer or something, but I understand that there is a war going on now. And to win and survive, we all must work for victory, wherever and however we can."
This is indeed a phenomenon happening in Ukraine. Demonstrating indifference is unacceptable and not approved by society. To some extent, it appears as societal polarization. But Yulia considers it normal under current conditions.
Regarding how the war in Ukraine is perceived by European society, Yulia observes two regularities. Firstly, foreigners who have contacts in Ukraine and receive information firsthand actively provide help to those they know. They send money, various items, medicines, and much more. Secondly, it seems that residents of Scandinavian countries and generally northern Western European countries are more attentive to the situation in Ukraine. Who knows, perhaps they have a stronger historical memory.