Fiona4Ukraine

One year ago I drove into Kharkiv on a day much the same as in the photo above, taken this evening, with a clear blue sky. My co-driver had to try to direct me because there was an air raid alert, during which satellite navigation often does not function. I remember driving across impossibly huge squares, having no idea in which direction traffic was supposed to go! Today the air raids continue, day and night, and now those huge squares are familiar and beautiful to me. Kharkiv felt very different from Lviv and Odesa, where I lived previously - the enormity of the spaces, the Soviet-style architecture - but it soon grew on me and has become my favourite city in Ukraine. Of course, it's always people who make the difference and, in Kharkiv, I've felt the welcome and friendliness of people more than anywhere else. There's also a slightly crazy, anarchic feel to this city that I think has always been present, and may have been enhanced by people's experience of trying to l...

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 ...