April 13, 2022

LVIV The war effort is everywhere in Lviv.

The city, the largest in western Ukraine, has swelled with about 200,000 people who were displaced from elsewhere in the country since Russia invaded in late February. Some of its schools and theaters were transformed into shelters to hold the new residents.

Street musicians on the narrow streets sing Ukrainian and foreign songs like they always have, but now with signs that read that half the money will go to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The street music and birdsong are routinely overlapped with air raids.

The city was miraculously spared during the Second World War, but it has been subject to air shelling twice so far.

The residents of Lviv, along with displaced Ukrainians, are united. Many Ukrainians feel it as a continuation of their long history of fighting for independence.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have arrived from abroad to help their country and join the Armed Forces. The number of volunteers already exceeds the current capacity to train and equip them. So mostly those with previous military experience are being called into service, and others are put on a reserve list. Men and women, young and old, right and left, people of every background and profession are fighting shoulder to shoulder.

Civilians are not sitting back. Some of them have undergone training on first aid and the basic rules of handling weapons. Others make camouflage nets or unload and sort humanitarian aid. People donate to private and public initiatives buying drones, vehicles and other military equipment.

Volunteers prepare trucks to be sent east to areas directly affected by the warfare. The volunteers come from a slew of professions managers, IT specialists, university professors and more all gathered to process the boxes of foreign aid sent by the Ukrainian diaspora and other supporters abroad.

There are many supplies, but in a country where roughly every fourth citizen has left home, the demand is still very high. The biggest needs are medicine, hygiene items, or simply food and clothes. Not to mention protective equipment for soldiers.

One displaced woman, Aide, was celebrating her birthday. Aide, 48, is of Azerbaijani heritage but has lived in Ukraine since she was 13. She has been forced from her home twice due to Russian aggression.