Created during war: five apps Ukrainians should install

In the first nine months of russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, about 17,000 civilians received injuries. More than 6,000 of them died. Ukrainians take courses in tactical medicine, carry tourniquets in shoulder bags and handbags, and know that it's not the beauty that will save the world but first aid. However, any skills need practice. Otherwise, we risk getting confused under stress.

The TacticMedAid app came up in the first weeks after February 24, the start of russia's full-scale invasion. It contains a handbook of international medical protocols to quickly learn how to stop bleeding and what to do in the event of bleeding, cardiac arrest, or loss of consciousness, both in peaceful times and on the battlefield.

TacticMedAid is an educational project that later developed a mobile app with clear medical instructions for the military and civilians. With the help of the application, you can learn a theoretical first aid course, test your knowledge or remind yourself of the sequence of actions in case of various injuries.

You don't need a medical degree to understand the instructions in the app. But the developers recommend undergoing appropriate first aid training to train "muscle memory," without which it will be difficult to perform all the necessary actions.

Volunteer and TacticMedAid project founder, Andrii Sabanskyi, says that from the first days of the war, Ukrainians lacked knowledge of how to act when injured by enemy shelling. The military also needed a more profound understanding of the topic. This especially applied to the mobilized — they were well taught how to handle weapons, but there was a lack of instructors to teach them tactical medicine qualitatively.

"In the first week of the full-scale invasion, the TacticMedAid chatbot was working on the Telegram [messaging app] base. Later, my team and partners decided to develop a separate application. It was already available to download for free in March.

The opportunity to spread information about the chatbot and the application through Diia [gov app] was a big help. [Ukraine's digital minister] Myhaylo Fedorov and his team supported us. Even when the Ministry of Health approached us, they perceived us as part of the Diia team," says Andrii Sabanskyi.

In addition to "quick" text instructions, the TacticMedAid application also includes video instructions. Materials of the TCCC protocol (Tactical Combat Casualty Care) for the military have information that all military troops must possess, as well as levels for military "rescuers" and parts of the protocol for medical personnel of military medical facilities.

Two programs are available for civilians, a short one based on the STOP THE BLEED protocol, which deals with stopping the bleeding, and the UNITactic (X) program. Convenient navigation allows you to quickly switch between levels and sections.

At the time of publication of this article, the 293rd day of one ongoing air raid continues in the Luhansk region. From February 24 to January 17, Ukraine had 15,292 air raids. When the sirens went off in the cities at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, people barely heard them in the residential or remote areas. This made the situation especially difficult at night. The question arose: how to ensure that all Ukrainians immediately receive a notification about the beginning of an air raid?

Dozens of people came together to create a sophisticated technical solution as an alternative to the outdated street notification system. In particular, Stfalcon executive director Stepan Tanasiichuk developed a concept of the application that will inform people about danger from the air at any time and anywhere, even with turned-off notifications on the phone.

The first version of the Air Raid application was released about a week after the idea arose. The Stfalcon project manager, Andrii Makhynia, says they worked with the Ajax team with the support of Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Initially, the application worked in Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi and then was connected to all Ukraine regions after a few days. For the application's stable operation, it was necessary to establish communication between all the bodies responsible for announcing the alarm, particularly with operational headquarters, to which regional military administrations transmit information about danger from the air.

After that, a message about the air raid announcement appears in the application, depending on the location selected by the user. After the air raid alert ends, the appropriate notification appears promptly again. The application works with an Internet connection.

The Air Raid application continues to be updated and improved. In particular, in the last update at the end of December, developers added an English-language version, which will be helpful for foreign visitors to Ukraine.

"The Air Raid application became part of the UNITED24 initiative. In particular, you can now choose the voice announcing the start of the air raid by the famous American actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars," says Andrii Makhynia.

With the beginning of the war, there were more reasons to worry about loved ones, especially if they were in another city, region, or even under occupation. When the connection to the Internet is unstable, it is not so easy to text in the messenger that you are fine.

A week after the start of the full-scale war, the Dobre application development began. The app allows you to check the status of relatives. In passive mode, you can see if everything is fine with contacts from the application and update your status.

After downloading the application, you need to choose a nickname and indicate the residential area's status. For example, you may select "dangerous" if hostilities continue nearby. In this case, the application will ask the user if everything is okay every hour. If the user does not respond in time that everything is fine, the app will notify all the contacts they have added to their list. 

You can invite your loved ones to install the app so you can check each other's statuses. This requires at least a minimum internet connection. 

The developers plan to improve the application. For example, they want to add the function of specifying your location. Then they will add an opportunity to cooperate with an ambulance or rescuers. In this case, the services will be able to visit the user if the person has not responded in time that everything is fine.

"Personal requests are among the planned functions. That is, a person clicks on a contact and at that very moment asks if everything is fine with them. For example, your child is at school. The shelling began, and the children went down to the bomb shelter, but you can ask at the same moment if the kid was all right. It is planned to add the user's geolocation," says Dobre project manager Illia Shliakhovyi. 

According to the State Emergency Service, Ukraine had nearly 30% of the territory mined as of mid-November. This creates a constant danger. There may be ammunition in forests, steppes, or even resort areas. Therefore, the question arose about increasing public awareness of the dangerous regions.

The solution was to develop a separate mobile application, MineFree. The straightforward application marks potentially dangerous areas on the map that it is better not to visit.

The MineFree application allows you to view a map where dangerous areas are marked according to the State Emergency Service data. In addition, you can get a notification if you, the user, approach one of the likely mined areas. Also, the application has a directory of the State Emergency Service with photos and descriptions of all explosive objects.

Through the application, you can report that you have found an explosive or suspicious object. You can add a photo, description, address, or geolocation to do this. Representatives of the State Emergency Service will work on the submitted application.

According to the developers, the mobile app has the following advantages:

•   Integration with the official database of the State Emergency Service;
•   Registration using a mobile phone;
•   Convenient map based on Google;
•   Automatic geolocation if necessary;
•   Warning about approaching danger.

Even after almost eleven months of full-scale war with russia, you can still find goods from the aggressor country on store shelves. Ukrainians are trying to boycott such products not to sponsor the war and support the russian economy. But sometimes it is difficult to find the origin of the product.

The Zrada ("betrayal" in Ukrainian) application by Mykhailo Mozhaiskyi will help quickly find out where the products came from by the barcode on the shelves of Ukrainian stores.

All you need to do is download the app and scan the product's barcode. Next, the program will independently check whether the manufacturing company is related to russia. The application will even show if it is the product of a company that continues to work in the russian federation and pay taxes there.

All the listed applications are free. Their shared uniqueness is that they were developed almost immediately after the start of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Their joint mission is to help Ukrainians in these difficult times, in particular, to warn them of danger, teach them the basics of medicine, or simply inform their loved ones that everything is okay with them.