In Kharkiv, in the north-east of Ukraine, the 13th Brigade of the Khartiia National Guard is using social media and cultural events to encourage civilians to sign up – and to show that service is not limited to the front line.
Sasha Zhylyaev, a sergeant with Khartiia, one of the most popular units in the Ukrainian military, is in charge of communications, marketing and fundraising. In his pre-war life, Sasha, who was also a DJ in his spare time, had opened a small café and worked in marketing for companies including Comfy, an electronics store, and Multiplex, a cinema chain.
Originally from Kyiv, he joined this Kharkiv-based unit more than a year ago.
Dmytro, his colleague from Kharkiv, was a freelance journalist for 10 years before he joined. The two men chose Khartiia over other units precisely because it would allow them to continue using their civilian skills in the service of the army.
Dmytro explains: "Here, there aren't just combat positions, there are also jobs that involve interacting with civilians."
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In 2022, he found himself at the heart of the war: "When the invasion began, I was reporting from the front line and talking about the occupied territories. Then I thought it was time for me to get involved."
He added: "We are fortunate to have an excellent communications team at Khartiia, with designers, photographers, people from the world of communications – in short, specialists. I have always thought of Kharkiv as a capital for this kind of expert, and it is of course a shame that they have arrived here in such circumstances, but it is also great to have the best people working with us in the army."
From billboards to charity events
Founded in 2022 by Ukrainian businessman Vsevolod Kozhemyako, the Khartiia brigade has successfully adopted marketing strategies to encourage men and women from worlds far removed from the military to join.
Significant resources have been deployed, with billboards visible on most major Ukrainian roads and charity events organised across the country to raise funds.
As Ukraine this week marks four years since the large-scale invasion, Sasha Zhylyaev is in Berlin attending the Café Kyiv conference, which brings together supporters of Ukraine, to talk about his brigade.
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Dmytro confides: "My main goal was to stay in my hometown, so in that sense I'm lucky. But the transition from civilian to military life was a bit complicated at first, especially during training. But once you get past that, you get used to it and here you feel like family. As soldiers, we share a common language."
In this vein, one of his recent projects was to show soldiers from Khartiia living their daily lives.
"We collaborated with one of Ukraine's best photographers, Roman Pashkovskiy, and instead of simply presenting portraits of our men and women, we showed them during their downtime, at home, and asked them to talk about their feelings and how their service in the army has changed them."
He believes projects like this can change preconceptions about the military. "It's a cliché to say that soldiers just sit in the trenches. There are lots of jobs outside combat zones too."
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Becoming a brand
"We have a strategy: to be present in all formats in people's lives. We want to become a recognised name, like a brand. To do this, we organise concerts, we have our own radio station and we are very active on social media," explains Sasha.
Khartiia recently called on one of the most famous of Kharkiv's residents, writer and singer Serhii Zhadan.
"He runs our radio station, and we invite well-known personalities to appear on it – such as Ai Weiwei recently, with whom Zhadan discussed war and art through war."
This communication strategy extends internationally – and with success. The unit contains a large number of South American soldiers, particularly Colombians and Brazilians, as well as a few Europeans.
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And the 13th Brigade is just one example. Other units, among the most popular in Ukraine, employ similar methods.
These include the 414th Brigade Birds of Magyar – formed in January 2024 under the command of the popular Robert Brovdi, head of the Ukrainian Army's Unmanned Systems Forces since June 2025 – and the 429th Achilles Brigade, created in 2022 and upgraded from a group to a battalion, then to a regiment, before becoming a fully fledged brigade.
They share a common goal: to make society more open to the military by changing recruitment practices and highlighting the diverse profiles of the soldiers, at a time when the Ukrainian army is struggling with recruitment.
On the eve of the anniversary of Russia's large-scale invasion, Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov promised to review a system that has failed to mobilise enough soldiers.
"We are currently working on a comprehensive reform of mobilisation. We will propose a systemic solution to resolve the problems that have accumulated over the years and, at the same time, preserve the country's defence capabilities."
This article was adapted from the original version in French by Emmanuelle Chaze in Kharkiv.
