The Work to Make Soldiers Work: Civilian Engagement in Support of the Ukrainian Army

Paper Title

The Work to Make Soldiers Work: Civilian Engagement in Support of the Ukrainian Army

Publication Info

• Topic area: Civilian–military cooperation and ICT appropriation in hybrid warfare.
• Keywords: Civil-military cooperation, hybrid war, dual-use technologies, socio-technical integration, crisis informatics, drones, wartime infrastructuring, cyber operations, Ukraine, resistance.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Civilian–military cooperation in interstate war and the appropriation of commercial technologies into military infrastructures are under-examined in HCI and CSCW research.
• Significance: Understanding civilian contributions to military resistance under hybrid-war conditions is critical for analyzing modern warfare and designing socio-technical systems that support such cooperation.
• Motivation and related work: Prior studies have explored ICT in crises and political conflicts but have focused mainly on social media activism or formal organizational responses. This paper builds on crisis informatics and infrastructuring literature to address the gap in understanding civilian-led appropriation and integration of technologies into military practice.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A qualitative study examining civilian–military cooperation and the appropriation of commercial technologies into military infrastructures during the first five months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Novelty:
  1. Conceptualizing civilian engagement as wartime infrastructuring and appropriation under risk.
  2. Documenting the integration of dual-use technologies into military workflows by civilian actors.
  3. Highlighting the visibility paradox in civilian support work during hybrid warfare.
  4. Offering methodological insights for conducting research in active war zones.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted 13 interviews and observations in Lviv, Ukraine, during July 2022.
  • Used opportunistic sampling, trust-based access, and evening write-ups to collect data under wartime constraints.
  • Analyzed field notes through inductive coding, identifying themes such as material supply, socio-technical integration, information warfare, and coordination via informal networks.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Civilians provided material supplies (e.g., drones, vehicles, thermal optics) and funds through digital micro-donation tools.
  • Civilian technologists re-engineered commercial drones and software to integrate them into military command-and-control workflows.
  • Civilians participated in cyber and counter-information operations, including bot-based messaging and DDoS attacks.
  • Informal networks and social media were critical for coordinating support and bypassing bureaucratic military hierarchies.
• Advantage over baselines: Civilian-led support enabled rapid procurement, adaptation, and integration of technologies under conditions of risk and urgency, bypassing inefficiencies in formal military supply chains.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Interviews with NGO leaders, software company employees, and other civilian actors.
  • Observations of procurement, logistics, and communication practices.
  • Analysis of socio-technical integration of dual-use technologies into military infrastructures.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited geographic scope (Lviv) and temporal range (first five months of the war).
  • Reliance on non-recorded interviews and field notes due to security constraints.
  • Future research should extend to other regions, later phases of the war, and broader civilian–military dynamics.

Summary

This study investigates civilian–military cooperation in Ukraine during the early months of the Russian invasion, focusing on the appropriation of commercial technologies into military infrastructures. Civilians played a critical role in supplying material, integrating dual-use technologies, and conducting cyber operations, often bypassing formal military hierarchies through trust-based networks. The findings highlight the concept of wartime infrastructuring and the visibility paradox in civilian support work. Methodologically, the study demonstrates adaptive approaches to fieldwork in conflict zones. These insights contribute to HCI/CSCW research on socio-technical systems in crises and hybrid warfare, emphasizing the need for systems that support low-trace coordination and selective disclosure.