It’s hard to believe that it’s really her, with her pink hair and her little bird movements, the secret military rearmament negotiator for the Ukrainian foundation Come Back Alive. In the darkness of a Kyiv café, with a few candles flickering, she finds it difficult to focus on anything but her ten-year-old daughter, who is waiting for her in a barely heated apartment. Right at the beginning she announces: “Everything legal. It’s even her, the pink-haired young woman, who just changed Ukraine’s legislation to allow charities to import offensive military equipment.
Come Back Alive is today the only NGO on the planet that, thanks to its fundraising, can offer long-range rocket launchers and Turkish Bayraktar TB2 combat drones (about 3 million euros each) to the national army. It is an understatement to say that in 11 months of war Ukraine has slipped into a different reality.
Andryi, a permanent member of the Come back alive association, on December 22, 2022 in Kyiv. RAFAEL YAGHOBZADEH FOR THE WORLD 
At the premises of the Come back alive association in central Kyiv, December 22, 2022. RAFAEL YAGHOBZADEH FOR THE WORLD
Today the country is angry. No More Signs of Fear or Depression: Almost any family could tell the story of one of their children asking for guns as a holiday gift. New first names appear, Bayraktar for boys – like the famous drone – or Javelina for girls, a variation of Javelin, the American anti-tank missile launcher. “I want you to buy enough with my money to kill as many Russians as possible,” retirees bluntly sum up the Come Back Alive website. The deadlier the gear, the more successful the fundraising. “History is being made, people want to be there, to be part of the victory,” says Andriy, a 30-year veteran and permanent member of the club.
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Donations are pouring in from everywhere
From the perspective of Ukraine, the most recent approval for NGOs to import weapons seems less surprising than the logical consequence of a civil movement that is very country-specific: here, the military has long since mixed with humanitarian work. To understand this, we need to remember the year 2014. At the time, the national army was in complete dismantling, orchestrated by part of the political class. Loyal to Moscow, she claims that Russia will be Kiev’s shield, not its attacker. Only 5,000 soldiers were on standby at the time, 4% of the troops were equipped with bulletproof vests.
When war broke out in Donbass that year, a popular movement spontaneously organized to support this army with bare hands, from buying underwear to delivering sophisticated communications equipment or vehicles. In short, everything for the front, except offensive weapons, is subject to special regulations. Very quickly, Ukrainian volunteers will become the most important figures in the country, the first to be trusted by society, far ahead of institutional leaders and politicians.
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