DANYLIW RESEARCH SEMINAR ON CONTEMPORARY UKRAINE

To Die for: The Role of Ideology in the Mobilization
of pro-Russian Combatants during the Donbas War

One of the key challenges in analyzing the role of ideology in violent conflicts is the macro–micro paradox: salient ideological patterns are visible at the collective level, yet individual participants often display mixed and inconsistent motives. This paper addresses that paradox by examining how anti-Kyiv combatants made sense of their participation in the Donbas war (2014–early 2022).

Natalia Savelyeva is a sociologist and lecturer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (US).