Role of denominational entities in providing assistance to the Russian-Ukrainian war refugees (2022-2023)

The purpose of the study is to determine the role of denominational entities in dealing with the consequences of the Ukrainian war refugee crisis.The author set the following tasks: to find out the extent of the involvement of church and para-church organizations in the provision of assistance to these refugees, to identify the characteristic features of the aid activities of individual church-based organizations, and to trace internal mechanisms of this effort.The research methodology is based on the comparative analysis and functional-structural approaches.The originality of the study lies in an attempt to provide a broad picture of multidirectional refugee relief effort across Europe.The main results of the study are:The denominational entities' response to the Ukrainian war refugee crisis which started in February 2022 has been mostly well-organized and effective.While being much smaller in the absolute volume of assistance provided than national governments' efforts, this response has often been better targeted, more flexible, and prompter than government actions.It has covered to some extent every need of the refugee communities and capitalized on long-standing linkages between various churches both within countries and internationally.The level of formalization and centralization of this effort has generally been directly proportional to the development level of the country in question and its distance from the Ukrainian border (that is, Eastern European denominational entities have been overall more inclined to use informal and localized refugee support practices).Prospects for further research.Studying the ways of spreading best practices of denominational entities to other aid providers, especially government agencies, could be quite useful.This study needs to be complemented with research on the role of non-European and non-Christian church-based organizations in the Ukrainian war refugee crisis response.