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Infrastructure Citizenship: An Expression of Ukrainian Sovereignty in Wartime

Sophie Lambroschini

Updated: Jun 21, 2024

Sophie Lambroschini for the Kennan Centre Focus-Ukraine Blog at the Wilson Centre on April 7, 2022. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/infrastructure-citizenship-expression-ukrainian-sovereignty-wartime


In another blog post for Focus Ukraine I analyzed how Ukrainian companies responsible for critical infrastructure such as water and electricity have adapted to wartime conditions. The coordinated action that makes public services function despite the shelling of infrastructure networks and the danger to repair crews is a form of resistance.


Thinking further, I realized it also shows how collective management of critical infrastructure allows people to identify with their hometown as a Ukrainian political entity despite the Russian military presence, and how such collective work can express the feeling that citizens and local powers in occupied or besieged communities still have authority over the political. In this way, the relationship of people to material infrastructure may be changing how we understand sovereignty.



On the bus in Odesa oblast. Photo : Sophie Lambroschini


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