RAW researcher Linde Arentze and investigative journalist Isa Zoetbrood co-authored a longform piece in De Groene Amsterdammer on the civilian arms industry sustaining Ukraine’s war effort. The piece is the second installment of their DIY-War project; the first part, which followed Dutch civilians supplying Ukrainian soldiers from their own homes, was published in October 2025.
Based on Zoetbrood’s on-the-ground reporting in Ukraine, the piece examines how civilians, printing landmines, assembling FPV drones from AliExpress parts, and training soldiers, have become integral to Ukraine’s military supply chain as domestic arms production has grown from under ten percent to nearly sixty percent of weapons in use.
Arentze situates this within broader questions about the decentralisation of weapons supply, the erosion of central oversight, and the limits of civilian production as a long-term strategy. The piece concludes that while civilian contributions have been vital for Ukraine’s survival, they cannot substitute for the industrial scale needed for a decisive outcome.
