Purpose: Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine threw all spheres of life in that country into turmoil. The public service was tasked to foster resilience and ensure the continued functioning of the state. Our purpose is to study how a war-shaped public leaders’ understandings of the leadership necessary for tackling emerging crises in a swiftly shifting environment while delivering services to citizens and continuing reforms toward EU membership.

Design/methodology/approach: The research reflects the analysis of 15 semi-structured interviews with members of Ukraine’s public service from various parts of the country conducted in September–October 2023. Heroic/post-heroic ideals of leadership, as well as the distributed model of leadership, are selected as the theoretical framework.

Findings: According to Ukraine’s public managers, the collectivistic ideal of public leadership has persisted. Since 2022 and Russia’s full-scale war, they claim the distributed form of public leadership has developed further. Based on the analysis of the interviews, we suggest these managers differentiated intraorganizational, intergovernmental and intersectoral types of distributed leadership.

Research limitations/implications: The study is conducted during the full-scale war; therefore, observations and field work are restricted. Face-to-face interviews are impeded by air raids: missile and drone attacks; online interviews are sometimes hindered by constant electricity blackouts and alarms. The results of the study reflect the subjectivity of the participants’ thoughts and feelings and may not be more broadly generalizable.

Originality/value: This is an explorative study that shows how public leaders speak and think about public leadership in the ongoing crisis of war.