Volunteers Need Protection, Not Heroism, As They Become Targeted

Yevhen Koliada, the head of a civilian evacuation NGO, said volunteers need electronic-warfare gear to protect themselves and those they risk their lives to save. Make us preferred on Google Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied The head of the charitable organization “RCC,” Yevhen Koliada, and Fedko Anatoliy, an RCC volunteer, at the Molodizhnyi Park in Kharkiv on March 22, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Yevhen Koliada) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google There are things that remain difficult to accept even in the fourth or fifth year of a full-scale war. One of them is that a person who goes to save civilians can become a target themselves. Not a random victim or “collateral risk,” as it is sometimes described in analytical briefs, but a deliberate target. And when you work in the humanitarian field for a long time, you begin to see the core problem especially clearly: The war has already changed, while the law, the rules, and part of the international approaches still view it as if (first-person view) FPV drones and the targeting of evacuation crews simply do not exist. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . As is often said, every country prepares for the previous war. This is equally true for the humanitarian sector, which always accompanies armed conflicts. Countries that, fortunately, have not experienced war often operate under a different logic than the one required by field reality. And these countries are our donors. Their rules, protocols, and response mechanisms are often designed for an outdated threat landscape. But war evolves faster than norms can adapt. In Ukraine, we feel this every single day. When I communicate with international donors and partners, I clearly understand that they trust Ukrainian humanitarian organizations, their expertise, and their capacity to implement large-scale projects. However, the international legal framework they rely on is partly built on assumptions that no longer reflect reality on the ground. Other Topics of Interest Three Dead as Russian Drone Strikes Ravage Kherson and Nikopol Ahead of Truce Russian forces continued their bombardment of civilian targets on Saturday morning, killing three and injuring several others, including a nurse, just hours before a Moscow-declared ceasefire. Evacuation under fire Throughout our work, we have repeatedly had to adapt our response approaches. We started as a small chat in a messaging app with just a few concerned individuals, and eventually grew into a large, structured operation – the Charitable Organization “Relief Coordination Centre.” Every week, our 203 hotline receives hundreds of evacuation requests. Behind each request is the fate of individual people who are not even asking for safety – they are simply asking to live. These are elderly people, persons with limited mobility and children. Often, they cannot leave directly from their homes. Sometimes they have to travel dozens of kilometers on their own just to reach an evacuation crew. Those who travel in evacuation teams to frontline settlements know very well what it means to be under direct threat. This is despite the fact that the vehicles are clearly marked as humanitarian. But these markings do not provide protection. Even though, together with the STEEL consortium, we use armored vehicles, they cannot always fully guarantee safety. Humanitarian vehicle after being hit by a Russian FPV drone. (Photo courtesy of Yevhen Koliada) We are proud that, together with our international partners, we have managed to insure the lives of 3,900 volunteers. But we must be honest: Insurance does not protect life and health in reality. It does not stop an FPV drone. Therefore, it is critically important for us to obtain official authorization to use electronic warfare (EW) systems, because our top priority is preserving the lives of the crew and the people they are transporting. In 2025 alone, together with our partners, we evacuated around 70,000 people. This is a significant number. But behind it lies a very high price. Recently, I visited the Volunteers’ Memorial Alley in Kharkiv’s Molodizhnyi Park, where we installed an updated memorial board with the names of the fallen. There are as many as 34 names on it. These people are rarely spoken about. Their names are not often heard publicly. But we remember them. And they are remembered by those they evacuated, those to whom they gave a chance for a safer life. This is not just a number. It is a reminder that volunteers and humanitarian workers must be protected, and that personal protection systems must be systematically strengthened and improved. The head of the charitable organization “RCC,” Yevhen Koliada, and Fedko Anatoliy, an RCC volunteer, at the Molodizhnyi Park in Kharkiv on March 22, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Yevhen Koliada) And we know for certain that, unfortunately, these are not all the names of volunteers who lost their lives and deserve to be honored. That is why we have opened a submission form where ordinary people and heads of organizations can share the stories of volunteers who lost their lives while carrying out humanitarian missions. Today, volunteers who risk becoming targets of FPV drones every day cannot freely use electronic warfare (EW) systems for their own protection without facing legal and financial risks. Within the logic of international law, such tools are often classified as weapons or as military-use equipment. This creates an absurd situation: People who evacuate civilians, rescue children, the elderly, and persons with limited mobility are, in purely legal terms, seen as using “weapons.” In reality, however, they are simply trying to protect the lives of their crews and those they are evacuating. This also leads to practical consequences. Equipping vehicles with EW systems poses risks to international donor funding, to justifying expenditures, and to passing audits. The problem is that there is no clearly codified, widely recognized international legal framework that donors can safely rely on to cover such costs in humanitarian missions. It is important to emphasize the key point here: We are not talking about participation in hostilities, nor about changing the status of humanitarian missions. We are only talking about the basic protection of those who save civilians. If the world recognizes evacuation as a humanitarian mission, it must also recognize the right to protect that mission from new types of threats. Ukraine is already living in a war where a volunteer can become a target as quickly as a soldier. And if international humanitarian law is not changed to reflect this reality, we will continue to leave humanitarian crews alone in the face of dangers that can no longer be considered exceptional. Today, volunteers need more than gratitude. They need real, legal, and recognized protection-both from the state and from the international humanitarian community. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of Kyiv Post. Yevhen Koliada has been a volunteer since the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion. He helped people affected across the Kharkiv region and, together with others, evacuated civilians at the Pechenihy dam. All of this was carried out as part of the work of the Eventroom charitable foundation. In September 2022, he founded the Charitable Organization “RCC.” The organization started as a chat in a mobile messenger with a few caring people, and later grew into a large organization.