Zelenskyy Awards 45 Volunteers With the Golden Heart on International Volunteer Day

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has awarded 45 volunteers with the Golden Heart on the occasion of International Volunteer Day, marked on 5 December.

The corresponding presidential decree No. 880/2025, dated 4 December, was published on the website of the Office of the President, Suspilne reports.

According to the document, the volunteers received the Golden Heart “for their significant personal contribution to providing volunteer assistance and developing the volunteer movement, including during efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s defence, protect the security of the population and the interests of the state amid Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine and to overcome its consequences, as well as for their active civic stance.”

In a separate message, Zelenskyy stressed the “symbolism” of marking Volunteer Day each year on the eve of Armed Forces Day, celebrated on 6 December.

“Our defence, our warriors, life in our communities. From the first days of the war in 2014, from the first days of the full-scale invasion on 24 February, Ukraine’s defence has never been in the minority — millions of people joined in defending our independence and our lives. And it is precisely this unity that has kept the Russian occupiers beyond the front line,” the president wrote on Telegram.

He added that Ukraine’s defence rests on “Ukrainian unity” and “Ukrainian mutual support.”