Holding community events during the war – insights from Ukraine

At the annual Wikimedia CEE Meeting, I presented a talk on how Wikimedia Ukraine holds community events during the war. This post is a writeup of key points:

For context, Russia’s war against Ukraine started in 2014 but entered its all-out stage in February 2022, with martial law, regular Russian strikes against civilian infrastructure, etc. The full-scale invasion is still going on, with no clear end in sight.

Wikimedia Ukraine has continued operating, growing, and, among other work, holding community events throughout this time.We hold one flagship annual conference with 100+ people, usually in the fall, as well as 3–4 other large offline or hybrid events per year, such as conferences for educators and researchers.

We also organize dozens of small online events and occasional small offline events, like editathons.

Events face three key wartime problems: 

• The first problem is direct security threats – as in, a Russian drone might literally hit the location of our conference.
• The second is power outages. They do not happen all the time: Russian attacks on energy infrastructure are seasonal, usually timed before the winter, for maximum destructive impact.
• The third is reduced mobility and availability. Some people moved abroad, some were called up, and some cannot travel for various reasons. (Trains were operating surprisingly well for much of the full-scale war, but now they are being attacked much more often, so intra-country travel is becoming more difficult).

So, we have three main solutions:

• The first is high-quality online events. Almost every major event has an online component, ideally a separate online sub-event in the case of flagship annual conferences. We think hard about making online events fun and engaging, with shorter and more dynamic programs, interactive activities, etc. (I shared more experience in a separate Diff post).
• The second solution is to remember that offline still matters, but it needs to be adapted. Events can be smaller. For example, in 2026 we went back to the 2022 practice of decentralizing our annual conference across two cities at the same time. Events also need to take place in secure locations: directly in a shelter in more dangerous cities, or near a shelter in safer ones, with a power generator, etc. In Kharkiv, as a frontline city, all events are in shelters by default. (Unfortunately, Kyiv has recently become a more dangerous city, where events need to be in shelter by default)
• The third aspect is flexibility. Things can still go awry — for example, an extreme train delay or a power generator failure. So make sure you have a plan, but also make sure you’re flexible enough to change your plan on the fly as needed.

If you’re interested in learning more or helping, contact me at anton.protsiuk@wikimedia.org.ua