What can the UK learn from Ukraine’s whole-of-society response?

When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, many doubted the Ukrainians would be able to withstand the onslaught. After all, Ukraine was defending itself against the world’s fourth largest army and a country assessed to have the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.

But anyone who had lived and worked in Ukraine – as I have done – knew that the Ukrainians would mount a whole-of-society response and would fight bravely, determinedly and innovatively to defend their homeland and its right to exist.

The defence of Ukraine has been a collective international effort, but the backbone and fundament of that defence has been the Ukrainians’ will to fight, their resilience and innovation.

There is much that other European countries – including the UK – can learn from this whole-of-society effort. Lessons that are sobering, as well as inspiring.

Ukraine’s resilience did not emerge overnight; it has been forged through decades of fighting to preserve the country’s unique identity, culture, territorial integrity and prosperity. An estimated one in five Ukrainians died during the Second World War, four to seven million died in the starvation inflicted by Stalin in 1932-33, and thousands more lost their lives to purges and conflict.

These horrors are imprinted in the DNA of Ukraine. Survival practices learnt throughout the turbulence and violence of the 20th century were drawn on by Ukrainians to defend themselves from Russia’s invasion in 2022. For many, family lore became a survival strategy.

Throughout the ages, Ukraine has relied on perpetual vigilance and a whole-of-society response. We do not have the same ingrained reflex in the UK, but we can learn from this, nevertheless.

A cornerstone of Ukraine’s resilience has been the continued functioning of the state. Despite invasion, drone and missile attacks, and occupation, core institutions have remained operational and new organisations have been founded – not least the new Defence Procurement Agency.

Decentralisation reforms enacted since 2014 have proven critical. Empowered local governments were able to coordinate evacuations, distribute aid and maintain municipal services, even when national-level coordination was under pressure. Mayors and regional administrations became front-line actors in resilience, leading their local communities and working closely with Ukraine’s armed forces.

This has worked in tandem with the rapid mobilisation of civil society. Volunteer networks maintained supply chains to the front-line and have contributed significantly to innovation, fundraising and humanitarian support. Ordinary Ukrainians have supplied Ukraine’s armed forces with food, medical kits, protective equipment, clothing and drones.

These grassroots initiatives have at times even outpaced formal procurement systems in speed, adaptability and flexibility. Tech-savvy volunteers have provided digital solutions and coordinated logistics, while crowdfunding campaigns have raised significant amounts of money. Volunteers have acted as a force multiplier for the state, bridging gaps and agilely responding to urgent needs.

Back in 2015, I remember early Ukrainian attempts to develop their drone capability. Innovation and production were by a small but diverse group of volunteers who stripped down commercially available products and built them back better. They toiled for long unpaid hours in makeshift workshops. It was literally a group of people working in a shed.

These innovators operated through volunteer networks and close relationships with individual military units; they were reluctant to move towards integration with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence. The group judged that being part of the state system could slow them down and stifle innovation. In this case, bypassing the state also enabled more efficient feedback loops.

Russia had already illegally invaded Crimea and was fomenting conflict in the Donbas. Products were rapidly tested on the battlefield and were followed by swift evaluation, allowing adjustments and re-engineering to take place within eye-wateringly short time frames.

This model pre-dated Russia’s 2022 invasion, which allowed for the swift upscaling and intensification of a tried and tested model when full-scale war arrived. Individual military units became ‘innovation labs’, testing new tech that can later be scaled centrally.

The upsides and lessons for British innovation and procurement are clear. But there are also some drawbacks to Ukraine’s approach. Scaling production remains a challenge, as does securing funding. Competition between military units helps drive innovation, but it also means that Ukraine is operating multiple bespoke solutions, risking longer-term integration and interoperability issues, as well as supply chain inefficiencies and reduced oversight. This approach tends to work best in the heat of a crisis, but can be challenging if systems require longevity, standardisation, and tight coordination.

Ukraine’s tech sector has also played a critical role in sustaining resilience. It adapted quickly, relocating staff and continuing to generate revenue. At the same time, the tech sector developed battlefield innovations that have enhanced military capability – from drones to open-source intelligence platforms. Many with IT skills became cyber warriors, defending against cyber-attacks and mounting offensive cyber operations.

Swedish-Ukrainian tech company Beetroot is a good example of the nexus between volunteerism, innovation and tech in Ukraine. Since the invasion, Beetroot has helped tens of thousands of people with its relief fund, focused on providing long-term humanitarian support, including distributing aid and providing IT equipment to enable remote work and connectivity. The Beetroot Academy has expanded its educational programmes to help war-affected Ukrainians retrain in web development, programming and data skills. Rather than relocate abroad, Beetroot has continued to operate in Ukraine with hundreds of employees in cities across the country.

Recognising the centrality of rapid technology innovation to full spectrum warfare, in 2023 the Ukrainian Government established Brave1 – a defence technology platform and innovation cluster designed to accelerate the development, adoption and deployment of cutting-edge military technologies. This centralised hub brings together government institutions, defence forces, tech companies, investors, volunteers and the media to rapidly turn ideas into battlefield-ready solutions.

By pooling expertise, coordinating priorities, and channelling funding to high-impact projects, Brave1 aims to shorten development timelines and deliver competitive advantage on the battlefield. Since its inception, Brave1 has grown into the largest defence-tech venture investor in Ukraine. It is not simply a funding mechanism – it is an ecosystem where innovators and engineers can develop their ideas with comprehensive support. In the heat of war, speed is of the essence, and Brave1 has been successful in shortening the time for its certification procedures. The time between a project’s submission and its approval takes two to three months on average – much shorter than would happen in other Western countries.

We cannot allow our admiration for the Ukrainians to romanticise their resilience or whole-of-society response. The cost of Russia’s war against Ukraine has been terrible – at least 55,000 soldiers dead, thousands more lives tragically disrupted through injury, displacement and loss, widespread destruction and economic contraction. Resilience at this scale is not something that can be taken for granted: it relies on a unifying mission, continued resources, leadership, trust and support from allies and partners.

Ukraine’s response is neither accidental nor effortless. It is the product of decades of struggle and subsequent focused learning since 2014. Key factors have been its decentralisation efforts, a vibrant and motivated civil society, technological capability and a powerful commitment to fight and defend Ukraine. For the UK, there are important lessons here – not least the value of a whole-society response, shared responsibility, and the ability to mobilise quickly and coherently in a crisis. As the war continues, resilience remains Ukraine’s superpower. If the time comes, will it be ours?

This article was originally published in Desider Magazine.