Fiona4Ukraine

Christmas morning, 25 December, did not start so well. From 6 am Putin greeted us with a barrage of missiles (12 in total), which targeted boiler houses and electricity facilities, in parallel with an attack on the entire energy sector of Ukraine. As a result, much of Kharkiv is without heating and power outage schedules have been introduced. Fortunately, the weather is not too cold - around zero degrees celcius - and technicians managed to ensure that the city's electric transport (the Metro underground trains, trams and trolley buses) continued to operate. Several people were injured in the attacks and private residential buildings were damaged.  But, as the mayor of Kharkiv said, "I am confident that we will overcome today's challenges! We are together! We are Kharkiv residents! We are Ukrainians! Glory to Ukraine!" And Kharkiv could not look more Christmassy if it tried. As was pointed out to me, these incredible decorations use very energy efficient LED bulbs. Th...

Ukraine doesn't celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving but Hell's Kitchen does - to thank all their volunteers, from home and abroad. Liuda and Yegor, the kitchen's founders, put on a huge spread of food and drink for us. All volunteers were given individual, personal cards at the party and Yegor sent this message to us: "I want to greet you with the word 'Friends.' Yes, each one of you is a Friend to us. I never could have imagined that while standing against one of the biggest and most evil empires of our time, we would find friends from all over the world, from Europe to New Zealand. You prove to us that the words 'freedom,' 'liberty,' 'the rule of law,' and 'democracy' are not just fancy words that politicians like to repeat. These are real values. So I want to say THANK YOU, my friends. Thank you for our hope, our example, and our support. Thank you! Glory to Ukraine!" In the same spirit of Thanksgiving, I  woul...