Social assistance and informal social networks and the resilience of the population in Ukraine

Abstract Resilience is conceptualized as a property of subjects (individuals, families, households, communities, or nations) and is intrinsically linked to coping with and overcoming vulnerability, indicating that subjects may require external assistance during crises. Ukraine's social protection system during the Russian‐Ukrainian war has demonstrated sufficient resilience in protecting against life‐cycle risks. The State has also responded rapidly to the emergency crisis of war. International humanitarian organizations likewise have responded rapidly with numerous humanitarian aid programmes. However, funding opportunities are diminishing. This requires the most efficient use of limited resources. This study implements a community‐oriented approach, with a focus on localization in risk distribution through an analysis of monitoring data produced by international organizations and local research in Ukrainian communities. Key findings include overestimated expectations of family and friend support coupled with underestimated self‐reliance (approximately 20 per cent) during 2022–2024. Institutional support (volunteer, public, and international organizations) showed increased significance, while overall self‐reliance decreased in favour of external support sources. Future research directions include analysing expected‐versus‐actual assistance dynamics, investigating social support structure change factors, examining social trust transformation across institutions, and developing optimized support resource distribution programmes.