“War Doesn’t Affect It, Feelings Do”: How Couples Build Relationships During a Full-Scale War

“That is why the same process can produce opposite results: the experience a couple goes through may bring one couple much closer, while leading another to break up more quickly. War may be less an ‘accelerator of love’ than an accelerator of shared experiences that reveal a great deal about each other”. At the very beginning of their relationship, Nastya…More

Kyiv, Which Remembers the Price of Freedom: Independence Day During Wartime

Today, we do not celebrate Ukraine’s Independence Day with parades, fireworks, or spectacular shows. We simply put on our vyshyvankas, take out our blue-and-yellow flags and other symbols dear to our hearts, and go for a walk through the main places of Kyiv — places that once forged and tempered our state’s independence and that continue to delight us with…More

Parties at 6:30 PM, Small Stages and Sold-Out Shows by Ukrainian Artists: How the War Has Changed Kyiv’s Concert Scene

Today, a ticket to a concert in Kyiv can be purchased a month and a half before the event — or during the final week. A party that once started at night now begins at 6:30 PM because of the curfew. A small club can afford to experiment with a new artist, but even there, a mistake comes at a…More

While the Waiting Continues: How Kyiv Speaks About Prisoners of War and the Missing

At the “Bells of Hope for Those in Silence” rally on Kyiv's Independence Square, children and elderly people, mothers and fathers, wives and husbands gathered to honor those they are still waiting to welcome home. In their hands they held small bells decorated with blue-and-black ribbons. Their sound was meant to remind the world of people from whom families have…More

Kateryna Terekhova: A Volunteer Helping Kyiv Recover After Shelling

After Russian attacks, she arrives at places where apartment buildings have shattered windows, no electricity, water, or gas, and residents still do not know where to begin the recovery. Kateryna Terekhova coordinates volunteer "subordinates," building materials, a field kitchen, and the first emergency repair works so that people in damaged buildings can get through the hardest days after a strike.…More

Kyiv’s “new normal”: how the city is learning to live between shelling and air raid alerts

At night, Kyiv residents are increasingly waking up not because of an alarm clock, but because of a notification on their phone. Air raid alert. A few seconds to understand where the threat is heading, whether to wake a child, whether there is enough strength to go down to a shelter, or whether it is possible to stay in the…More

Kyiv’s wounds after Russian attacks: what can be rebuilt and what can no longer be restored

Kiev residents have been reading such reports for more than four years. Although such heavily concentrated attacks do not occur every night in the capital or other cities far from the front line, air raid sirens, explosions, and reports of destruction have long become part of the reality of war. According to the Kyiv City State Administration (KMDA), by the…More

Why Kyiv’s Coffee Culture Is More Than Just Coffee

Morning in a Kyiv coffee shop doesn’t begin with the first sip. First comes the sound of the espresso machine, a quick “the usual for you?”, someone opening a laptop, someone else standing by the counter scrolling through the news. At the next table, people are arranging a meeting — then laughter, quiet conversations, pauses. Nobody rushes, but nobody stays…More

Kyiv in bloom: how sakura season quietly changes the city

Right now, one of these moments is happening across the city: sakura trees are in bloom. Near Ivan Franko Square, in the very center, the usual rhythm briefly softens. People pause more. Someone takes a photo, someone just stands for a minute longer than planned. The pink blossoms don’t feel like an event — they feel like a shift in…More