Fiona4Ukraine

Easter is a big, important religious celebration in Ukraine. The decorations in Kharkiv are wonderful, as always. Easter traditions are very different here, at least from what I'm used to -  there are no aisles of chocolate eggs in the shops, for instance, but plenty of traditional Paska bread and decorated hard-boiled eggs. For many, going to church is important and so is being with family. This is a nice article about some of the Easter food traditions. https://kyivindependent.com/6-ukrainian-easter-basket-essentials/ Putin, of course, does not respect religion, tradition or human life. As you will know, on Palm Sunday morning, Russia launched two ballistic missiles at a crowded Sumy city centre, in a "double-tap attack." The second missile, fired minutes after the first one, was armed with cluster munitions, designed to inflict even greater devastation. 35 people were killed and  nearly 120 injured. In the early hours of April 18, Good Friday, Russia attacked Kharkiv c...

  Kharkiv Cemetery Number 18, 26 January 2025. I read that a few dozen soldiers, who died in Russia’s first Donbas incursion in 2014, made up a corner of this graveyard. But, after the full invasion in February 2022, their ranks expanded as far as the eye can see. One more fallen hero was added to the ranks today but this one was very personal - the son of one of the Hell's Kitchen volunteers, killed on the frontline. The kitchen was closed so that volunteers could attend his burial. Words/coherent sentences don't seem sufficient to convey the magnitude of the experience; these are images/impressions: - to begin with, the initial shock of the sight of mound upon mound of freshly dug, sandy earth, the graves covered by artificial flower displays, a Ukrainian flag at the head. I was ready for the vastness of the cemetery and the unfathomable number of graves, having seen photos, but not the rawness and immediacy of these piles of earth, not yet settled, and the unsaid implication...

On Saturday morning, instead of my usual bread baking, I accompanied one of the volunteer drivers, Kirill, who delivers our bread rolls and fresh-cooked food to hospitals across the city.  Kharkiv is Ukraine's second city, after Kyiv, and so, of course, had numerous hospitals. It's difficult to provide an exact number now, due to past destruction, ongoing damage and other changes; however, a number of hospitals are operational, including those that have been restored after bomb damage. Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) reports that, as the war escalated in February 2022, many residents of Kharkiv region, including medical staff, fled to western Ukraine or left the country. Many people in rural villages and towns in the region were evacuated to the city. The loss of health care workers, coupled with the massive medical needs related to the war, soon pushed the health care system to the brink. The Hell's Kitchen Foundation stepped in to try to meet some ...

There's a lot that goes on in Hell's Kitchen, apart from making bread rolls. Volunteers - Ukrainian and foreign - arrrive at 07:30 to begin scrubbing, peeling and chopping vegetables, to prepare the cooked meals that are sent, 365 days a year, to hospitals and military units. We need a lot of electricity -  we're in a basement, for a start, so we need light - and we have a 'cold room' (walk-in fridge) that runs 24/7. The cost of electricity is going up every month, no doubt as a result of the war and attacks on energy infrastructure. The energy bill last month was 66,819 UAH (nearly 90 % of which is electricity): approximately £1,242 / 1,484 Euros / $1,610 US. All of this is funded by donations. It was a smaller than usual bill because February is a short month and we use less electricity during winter - we need less ventilation and the air conditioner in the 'cold room' uses less power than in summer.  As of 22 March, at least thirteen civilians have been k...

On the night of February 26 I heard the whistle of a bomb falling and a very loud explosion nearby. It was the first of 4 drone strikes by Russia on Kharkiv and it hit the main road, Sumska Street, in the city centre. The others hit an apartment on the second floor of a high-rise building, where, fortunately, no-one was staying that night, and two empty cafes, and there were no injuries. It's amazing how quickly repairs are undertaken and all the shattered glass swept up. Because of this, you can miss where a recent bomb falls as there's already so much bomb damage around Kharkiv. The next morning I walked beside the park on Sumska Street and passed a woman setting up displays of the hugest imaginable artificial roses. I went up to her and asked why; she said, simply, "везна" (spring). At the same time, a little further along the road, men were repairing the crater in the street where the bomb fell and boarding up windows! It was a strange, life-affirming, very Ukrain...