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The large-scale mobilization of Ukrainian society is the most far-reaching legacy of Euromaidan and its tragic aftermath. Civil society intervened to fill the gap created by the state’s failure to fulfill key security functions. In so doing, civil society became a de facto security actor. By proposing a narrative of collective responsibility and introducing modern and more transparent working methods in civilian and military institutions, post-Maidan civil society displayed the potential to act as an agent of change capable of contributing to substantial reforms and having a positive effect on the quality of governance. The condition for this transformation is that state institutions retain arenas for functional representation and guarantee civil society’s meaningful access to decision-making beyond the emergency of the crisis.