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Following the Ukraine humanitarian crisis, which was a result of the war in Ukraine, ordinary citizens stepped up to spontaneously coordinate various humanitarian responses to support affected populations. In this article such individuals who founded or coordinated this form of spontaneous humanitarian aid are referred to as citizen aid actors (CAA). This paper explores the work of citizen aid actors in Poland, a country which received many of the people displaced by the war in Ukraine. The study applies the concept of digital affordances to illustrate and argue that citizen aid actors relied on the features available on digital platforms to attain their goals. It is an outcome of a qualitative research approach where interviews, participant observation, and analysis of relevant online material about the studied citizen aid actors were used as methods of collecting data. The findings indicate that these actors used diverse digital platforms at different stages of the humanitarian aid projects, from establishment, organization and sustenance. While this study demonstrates how specific digital platforms contributed to the accomplishment of the work done by CAAs, it also highlights how problematic it can be when the actors largely rely on digital platforms. As such, potential risks associated with overreliance on digital platforms as a way of implementing projects are factored in. Ensuing concerns include the presence of online trolls, the spreading of fake news, and internet disruptions as potential obstacles for the success of the aid projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Norwegian parliament has agreed to fund the Nansen Support Program for Ukraine, promising to deliver a total of NOK 75 billion (EUR 6.7 billion) in military and civilian aid to Ukraine over the period 2023–2027. In 2023, half of the aid was delivered in the form of military support, the other half constituted civilian support, including humanitarian relief and direct support to the Government of Ukraine. Over the next four years, the distribution between military and civilian aid through the Nansen Support Program will be decided on an annual basis. To achieve the long-term goal of making Ukraine ‘well-functioning, democratic and safe’, and supporting the country’s ambitions for European integration, the Norwegian aid is intended to strengthen democratic institutions, the rule of law and civil society in Ukraine. This paper examines the debate on Norway’s assistance to Ukraine and discusses the competing, or even conflicting, goals of helping Ukraine win the war and strengthening Ukrainian civil society, looking for answers to several difficult questions: How will the Norwegian government ensure that funding to Ukraine is in fact spent ‘in line with Ukraine’s needs’ and does not enrich criminals or facilitate unlawful activities? How will the funding help strengthen Ukraine’s democratic institutions and civil society? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the role of accounting in disaster mitigation and the importance of transparency to avoid corruption. During the Ukrainian war, accounting has allowed the redistribution of war material, the quantification of economic aid, or the efficient management of humanitarian aid. This paper aims to set a research agenda on transparency and corruption in foreign aid to a fragile and conflict‐affected country. In order to analyze the situation of corruption in Ukraine during the war, first a review of the latest corrupt events is carried out and its position in the Corruption Perception Indicator is analyzed. Subsequently, we analyze the aid that Ukraine has received from other countries and institutions, and whether it is transparent. The possible dependence of the Corruption Perception Indicator on the transparency index of each country in the management of aid to Ukraine is studied. This article links corruption, transparency and accounting in the context of the Ukrainian war, highlighting the important role of auditing and financial controls, and presents proposals for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The war in Ukraine has forced approximately eight million people into neighboring European countries. As part of sports clubs' societal commitment, many have received Ukrainian refugees. However, compared to previous so-called 'refugee waves', forced migration from Ukraine is different in terms of demographics, culture, and (sports) traditions. This paper aimed to assess these 'new' nuances and their implications for the European sports movement. Data were gathered through 17 semi-structured interviews with Swedish sports club representatives, analyzed with a critical realist-inspired thematic analysis, and interpreted with Bronfenbrenner's process-person-context-time framework. The representatives expressed that Ukrainian refugees are more in-tune with organized sports compared to other refugee populations; however, there are also culturally discrepant ideas about sports. Specifically, there seems to be an influx of skilled (youth) refugees, who approach sports in ways incompatible with Swedish conventions about youth sports. While the sporting capital often enables easier inclusion, it also presents challenges in extreme cases. The findings show that the European sports movement must be attentive to new challenges and opportunities associated with the current humanitarian crisis. Sports representatives need to balance culturally sensitive approaches with ethical considerations regarding youth sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Humanitarian assistance is not carried out in a vacuum. As urban warfare historically complicates humanitarian aid's access to civilians in war zones, Ukraine, having suffered and still facing highly publicized violence in civilian-dense areas, has encountered dire obstacles in acquiring necessary resources for civilians' survival, including both direct and incidental attacks on humanitarian access. Thus, it is vital the international legal community take measures to mitigate current and future dangers of urban warfare, as well as design new solutions, such as strengthening current international law under which obstructing humanitarian access constitutes a violation of jus cogens principles, attempting to induce countries to move away from conflict in civilian-populated areas, supporting previously attempted alleviations such as "safe zones" and humanitarian corridors, and boosting the concrete legal status of NGOs' and other organizations' neutrality, to ensure easier access to humanitarian aid in present and future war zones. In Part II (Part I being an introduction), this paper will first lay a foundation of the history of humanitarian assistance in armed conflict and civilians' rights to humanitarian assistance in armed conflict. Part III will introduce the history of urban warfare, then discuss common obstacles to humanitarian assistance (whether intentionally or unintentionally caused by States), specifically in situations of urban warfare. Part IV will examine how Ukraine has experienced and is currently experiencing humanitarian access issues, and the applicable obligations which involved States have failed to uphold. Finally, Part V will discuss potential solutions to the difficulty facing aid workers in Ukraine and other urban armed conflict situations where civilians are impacted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2022 invasion of Ukraine tests the resilience of the authoritarian regime in Russia. Most of the elites showed their commitment to the autocrat by publicly supporting the "special military operation". However, the intensity of their support has varied across the ranks. By examining Russian governors, I propose that elites vary their communicative responses to the war strategically, depending on their personal considerations and the structural characteristics of their regions. I apply text-as-data methods to analyze gubernatorial posts on the social network VKontakte in 2022–2023. I find that governors up for election, outsiders, with weaker political standing, and from poorer regions communicate more support measures for combatants and their families, and humanitarian aid to the annexed territories, when discussing the war in Ukraine. Therefore, by co-opting war-affected groups and emphasizing performance legitimacy, governors minimize the threat of anti-regime mobilization without resorting to large-scale repression and contribute to authoritarian resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Full-scale hostilities have had a significant impact on the budget system due to increased spending on defense, reconstruction, and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable groups, which has affected the accumulation of budgetary resources. The article examines the impact of extraordinary challenges and threats on the national budget system, in particular, on the structure and volume of budget revenues and expenditures, the growth of the budget deficit and public debt, changes in regulation in the field of public finance, and the potential of financial capabilities of the regions. The purpose of the article is to make a scientific and practical assessment of the problematic aspects related to the transformation of the budget system, to outline the ways of attracting financial resources that can be used for the purpose of distribution and redistribution to perform the functions of the State, to identify the main areas of influence of emergency challenges and threats on the budget system of Ukraine and the priority areas and measures of budget policy in wartime. The authors conclude that the strategic and main directions of Ukraine's development need to be improved in the strategy of public finance management and financial and economic security as part of the implementation of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies by the IMF. At the same time, the relevant legislative changes to the state budget for 2023 that meet the needs of Ukraine are studied, and the implementation of the first preparatory stage for the development of the National Revenue Strategy is analyzed. The authors emphasize the positive impact of decentralization on local self-government and the financial sustainability of local budgets. It is proposed to empower communities through monitoring the implementation of local budgets. In the context of defense needs, the possibility of including defense expenditures during martial law in local budgets is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]