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Paper short abstract

Drawing on the idea of ​​the right to the city, Natalia argues that by transforming of and caring for micro-scale spaces (homes, gardens, courtyards, streets, etc.) during the full-scale Russian war, Ukrainians restore connection to the threatened environments and create domains of control.

Paper long abstract

The paper examines how Ukrainians speak about their changed relations with places of everydayness (homes, gardens, courtyards, streets, etc.) during the full-scale Russian war. Drawing on the idea of ​​the right to the city, Natalia argues that by transforming and caring for micro-scale spaces, Ukrainians restore connection to the threatened social and physical environments and create domains of control. She also explores the proximity to the frontline as a factor that impacts engagement with the space. The paper contributes to the discussion on care, but extends it beyond social relations. Thus, caring for spaces becomes an individual coping strategy and a tool of maintaining social connections with those nearby and those who were before and will come after. It shows the complexity of care as it embodies love, support, and desire to control, which acquire additional dimensions in conditions of threat. Natalia builds her research on the two waves of interviews (150 conversations recorded in 2022 and 95 follow-up interviews in 2024-25) conducted with Ukrainians who were forcefully displaced after the Russian invasion of 2022. In 2024, some returned to their former places of residence, while others remained in the host communities or migrated abroad, so the paper also has a temporal and spatial comparison.