Mapping Ukraine’s Democratic Space (2023 – 2026)

Abstract

Between 2023 and 2026, local democracy in Ukraine transitioned from mass emergency mobilisation to a state of institutional survival. This shift is marked by acute democratic fatigue and a critical personnel crisis as civic leaders mobilise into the Armed Forces. Activists now bear a dual burden of managing community recovery while struggling for their own economic survival, a dynamic that has narrowed the active civic core and made local resilience dangerously person-dependent rather than institutionalised.