Over 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers have died in the undeclared war in eastern Ukraine (over 70 in 2021), and these figures don’t even take into account the thousands of undocumented volunteers who self-deployed to the Donbas in 2014, who stopped the Russian insurgency. It also doesn’t take into account the undocumented volunteers who have died since 2014. As the undeclared war wages on in its eighth year, many volunteers from the original movement continue to serve on the front line, although more are quitting each year, finding that the cause they fought for in the beginning has been swallowed by corruption, bureaucracy and a lack of international support (for example, the most recent U.S. and German support of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline). The ones who remain, some have since joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces, some remain in volunteer units that have been since integrated under the State, and some serve under “illegal” volunteer units that are in reality only illegal on paper. Because the State still needs them. It’s still a volunteer supported war, whether via manpower or self purchased and donated supplies from individuals and organizations around the world.