“I Am A Man And An Active Citizen… I Did Not Betray My State!”

This article challenges the established opinion about the weakness of civil society in the post-communist societies by examining non-conventional forms of political and protest mobilization activism in Ukraine and including informal ways of citizen par-ticipation into the analysis. The study shifts research focus from nationwide to local forms of activism. It contributes to a reconceptualization of regionalism in Ukraine and produces more nuanced maps of the civic activism in Ukraine after the Euromaidan. It also addresses the issue of population relocation in Ukraine, which was caused by the Russian annexation of the Crimea and military conflict over Donbas, and its role in generating the informal networks and volunteer groups that united the efforts of both locals and displaced.