12-08-2025
Kyiv's spirit endures while under siege and fighting for survival.
Next week Sunday is Independence Day in Ukraine. The 24th is a big day for many people I know, including the team I am working with on the film series Kyiv Of Mine that goes live that day on YouTube.
Another important date was last Friday when Donald Trump suggested he was going to put Vladimir Putin under pressure. No one in Ukraine believed this, and of course, it never happened. The next key date is this coming Friday, as Trump is apparently meeting Putin in Alaska. If they do meet to discuss the future of Ukraine, and Zelensky is not there, then what kind of a circus is this? As former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said recently: 'Trump has given Putin a giant gift – a meeting for the imperial dictator and war criminal with the president of the United States of America in the United States.'
In Ukraine life goes on, bombs and all. As someone said to me recently in Kyiv: 'We want to keep on living. But not in bomb shelters.' It is often surreal and very hard to comprehend. You can be sitting in a cool, trendy eating spot, having a gourmet pizza, and the next minute an air raid siren goes off, and the vibe changes. The full-scale war is in its fourth year and there is no end in sight. Most now believe that it will only end when Putin dies, and even then, no one is sure it will end. This is not Putin's war. This is a Russian invasion.
In Kyiv the mood is low. Everyone is so tired, and anxious. No one can plan a future in this current state. Halfway through the war, towards the autumn of 2023, there was optimism in Ukraine. You could feel the spirit wherever you turned. There was the anticipated counteroffensive, the attacks on Ukrainian cities were not as vicious or as often, and whoever wanted to volunteer to go to the army did so. In the autumn of 2023 there was this thinking that the war was a temporary thing. And now we can see it is a permanent thing. There seems to be no vision now – just a big, deadly grind that will go on for years.
Read more: War in Ukraine
By 2024 the mood had changed a lot. The counteroffensive of the previous year did not yield the results everyone had hoped for. Russia started to hit the electrical and heating infrastructure of Ukraine. And the Ukrainian military went on a big recruitment drive, with new mobilisation laws coming into effect. Then the promised American aid was stalled by more than seven months, and when Trump was elected president towards the end of that year, the mood hit an all-time low. Trump has not been good to Ukraine, but everyone lives in hope. He is making a lot of encouraging noises in the media of late, but most people don't have faith that he will actually do something to make Putin's life more difficult.
Now, in the second half of 2025, life still goes on in Ukraine, but people are struggling more than ever. Alcoholism, smoking and online gambling are on the rise. Divorce rates are sky-high. Trauma is everywhere. You see amputees in the city. Not many, but enough to notice. The number will keep rising. The economy is tight, and nothing is easy or simple. And, of course, people are dying. Innocent people are being hit by missiles and drones just about every other night. Then there is also the destruction. If a dozen people die during a night in a Ukrainian city then that is terrible. But what we don't read about in the news are the hundreds more who lost their homes and businesses in an evening strike. What happens to all these people? So many families have lost everything. And this terror does not stop. Day after day. Night after night.
I am struggling with the pain and trauma, which is nonstop. I don't sleep well at night, and last week a person we knew well died in the front lines. It is one big tragedy. This man, Ivan, was the kindest, humblest person and he has left behind two kids. It is all so unjust and sad. And for what? No one in Ukraine understands the point of this war. Ukraine posed no threat to Russia. This is all just some insane imperial conquest by Russia. Putin is evil – that is my view. And this evil will not stop, unless it is stopped.
Please support Ukraine. Please try to watch the Kyiv Of Mine film series when it goes live. This is a nonprofit venture and we are all hoping it inspires some fresh new interest in and support for Ukraine. DM
