Ukrainian Diaries

Kyiv has a kind of small business you won’t find in most cities. But rising energy costs and inflation are not helping those who miscalculated. This week’s episode is about MAFs.Enjoy the episode or read a 2-minute reflection here.Image: MAF by skymax

I am, fortunately, a pleasant enough person that people keep inviting me to their weddings. I have been to enough weddings, in places like Paris, Istanbul, Slovakia, across Ukraine, and in other cultures, to have opinions.Last weekend, I was at one again. We celebrated love, as one does.Enjoy the episode or read a 2-minute reflection here.Image: Return from the Wedding, Ivan Ayvazovskyy, 1891

Ukrainian stand-up didn’t start in a club with a brick wall and a microphone. It began in the post-Soviet 90s, shared on audiocassettes.At the center of it all was someone most people know from Eurovision: Verka Serduchka. She took second place at Eurovision 2007, with her sequins, silver star, and the song that got Europeans dancing in their chairs.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on April 17, 2026.Image: Verka Serducka, photo by telekritika.ua

While the world watches gas prices, I stand on the black prize.All eyes are on the Middle East and the surging price of oil, the “black gold.” We know its price will eventually dictate the cost of your commute and heating. But there is another black gold that doesn’t burn but feeds.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on April 10, 2026.Photo by Andrii Motygullin on Unsplash

Talking from exoerience living in multiple countries, Ukrainian service culture has a special quality that you might not notice until you leave. It’s not just about being available, though that stands out. It’s the attitude — the feeling that you are truly welcome, not just tolerated.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on April 3, 2026.Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Everyone in their place. Not everywhere at once. Not helping with everything because the guilt of not doing enough feels louder than the question of where you actually belong.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on March 27, 2026.Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash

When the whole world was searching “World War Three,” Ukraine’s top search was “When is Easter in 2026.”I noticed that and laughed. Then I thought about it for a while.That is not indifference.Dark humor from inside a war zone is not the same thing as dark humor from outside it. Psychologists call it a coping mechanism.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on March 20, 2026.Image: Democritus, Hendrick ter Brugghen, 1628

A foreigner who shows up, who understands, who acts, who holds the same values, feels closer than a relative who hedges despite having a Ukrainian passport. That line used to be invisible. Four years of war drew it in permanent marker.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on March 13, 2026.Image: Motherland in Kyiv, 102 m (335 ft), 2022. Photo by Glib Albovsky on Unsplash

I haven’t heard a certain sound in a while that wakes me up at night. The one between a broken lawnmower and an old car that refuses to start. A Shahed — an Iranian drone Russia buys to hit Ukrainian cities. An Iranian drone that costs $30,000 and announces itself like a bad joke before it kills someone.Now I’m reading that the Pentagon and Gulf states want to buy Ukrainian interceptors to shoot down those same drones. A few thousand dollars each versus $13.5 million per Patriot missile born in the US. The math writes itself.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on March 6, 2026.Image: Shahed-136 debris after being shot down, Kyiv region, 2023. Source dduvs.com

Spring in Kyiv doesn’t start with blooming trees. It starts with the asphalt “blooming” into craters. This week navigating my usual route felt like a high-stakes game of Tetris. I watched drivers performing a synchronized ballet of desperate swerves.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on February 27, 2026.Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash

When I was fourteen, we had a school poetry evening. We dressed up, rehearsed for weeks and tried to sound much older than we actually were.Growing up in Ukraine, we were exposed to the literary density early. Long-form novels and poems (e.g. Master and Margarita, Iliad), metaphysics and symbolism before we had the life experience to metabolize them. At the time, it felt abstract.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on February 20, 2026.Image: Tenderness, Ivan Marchuk, 1984

Today is the first Friday the 13th of 2026. This year decided not to hold back, giving us a triple dose in February, March, and November. The superstition reaches all the way back to the Last Supper.In Ukraine, this ancient anxiety finds its own rhythm.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on February 13, 2026.Image: Le Chat Noir (The Black Cat), Théophile Steinlen, 1896

Slavs are often perceived as reserved or even cold. There is that famous “Slavic stare” — a steady, unreadable gaze between a poker face and a quiet observation plus intimidation, a bit of a killer look. People online try to imitate it but it only works if you grew up inside the code.We don’t easily say “I’m worried about you, I miss you.” We don’t dramatize affection. Instead, we ask: “Sho ty tam?”.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on February 6, 2026.Photo by Hasbi Kurnia on Unsplash (the closest imitation I’ve seen so far)

Time in Ukraine has stopped behaving. A single day here feels longer than a week used to but not because we have more hours. It is because we pack too much life into every sixty minutes. Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on January 30, 2026.Image: The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dalí, 1931

At some point, you stop measuring days by plans. You start measuring them by electricity. The building chat becomes the most reliable source of truth.— Does the elevator work?— No, the elevator doesn’t work. I’m inside.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on January 24, 2026.Photo by Vladyslav Tobolenko on Unsplash

Kyiv is currently a giant icebox where the temperature has hit –17°C (1.4°F) and 16-hour daily blackouts have become the new, brutal standard. While Russian strikes attempt to freeze our endurance, they’ve triggered a masterclass in accidental philosophy and extreme adaptation.These true stories reveal a massive shift in behaviour and habits.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on January 16, 2026.Photo by Oleksandr Voloshchenko on Unsplash

Crossing into Ukraine by land is a test of patience but for a girl named Daria on a bus from Italy, it became a Netflix-level drama. And so it was for Ukrainians and me today. Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on January 6, 2026.Image: Gandalf/Sir Ian Murray McKellen by New Line Cinema

The Ukrainian digital ecosystem has shattered the bureaucratic masochism. I booked a doctor through a mobile app, Helsi (just the way a Ukrainian would pronounce “healthy”) at midnight and sat for an online consultation the next morning. No traffic, no queues, just resolution.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on January 2, 2026.Photo from www.digitalstate.gov.ua/about

Christmas in Ukraine has officially migrated to December 25th. The shift to the Gregorian calendar feels logical and European, yet the internal clock of my childhood still ticks toward January 7th. My early memories are anchored in the quiet, post-New Year lull of my grandparents’ table. It takes more than a decree to reorder the architecture of nostalgia.Enjoy the episode or read a 1-minute reflection here.This episode was originally published on December 26, 2025.Photo: Carolers sing in a carriage of the Kyiv Metro on December 25, 2023. Photo by Leonst