Themes by tag: Kyiv

At the end of September, a team of three Ukrainian veterans who have undergone amputations will attempt to swim across the Strait of Bonifacio. This narrow channel between southern Corsica, France, and northern Sardinia, Italy, is known for its challenging currents, shallow areas, and sudden wind shifts. At its narrowest point, the strait spans 11 kilometers, with a maximum depth of about 100 meters.

Each participant is a war veteran with their own recovery story. Demian Dudlia is a fire safety engineer. He voluntarily joined the National Guard at the start of the full-scale invasion and served as a grenade launcher operator and AGS-17 gunner. In April 2023, he sustained severe injuries resulting in an above-the-knee amputation of his leg.

Maksym Hrinchenko was injured in October 2022 during one of the missile attacks on Kyiv. Prior to 2022, he worked in construction. In February 2022, he voluntarily enlisted in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, later training as a sapper. He also underwent an above-the-knee amputation.

Ihor Oliinyk has pursued various interests, ranging from photography and the restaurant industry to military service and sports. In 2023, he was injured by shelling in the Serebrianske Forestry and lost an arm and an eye.

This trio will be the first team with disabilities to attempt this distance, starting and finishing together.

Journalists can cover the veterans’ training in Kyiv by prior arrangement. There will also be opportunities to interview participants online or in person in Italy.

Background: The veterans are members of the ONE TEAM FORCES community, which provides personalized and coordinated support to help injured service members fully recover — from initial rehabilitation to long-term social integration.

• casualties
• culture
• military
• Kyiv

The NGO Building Ukraine Together (BUR) is launching a two-week volunteer camp in the village of Byshiv, Kyiv region, where volunteers from Ukraine and abroad will collaborate with local youth to create a new community space. The initiative aims to provide a safe, welcoming, and inspiring environment to replace what was lost during the early days of the full-scale war.

In 2022, the community found itself on the front line – some nearby villages were occupied, and Byshiv suffered extensive destruction due to its proximity to heavy fighting. The community lost many key institutions, including the House of Culture. Since then, young people have had no dedicated place to gather, learn, or socialize outside of school.

To respond to this need, BUR and the Byshiv community will convert a room into a proper youth space. This will become a hub for learning, creativity, and community life.

The youth space will be created during a two-shift BUR camp (September 7-14, 2025, and October 26-November 2, 2025). Each shift will bring together around 20 volunteers, half local, half from across Ukraine and abroad. Beyond the building work, evenings will feature cultural and educational programming: excursions, workshops, and team-building activities.

For reference: Building Ukraine Together (BUR) is an all-Ukrainian non-governmental organization that engages young people in volunteer activities and non-formal education, empowering them to take part in building a democratic Ukraine.

• reconstruction
• volunteers
• Kyiv

The Kharkiv-based charitable foundation Rescue Now was established by local residents following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, the organization launched its Reroot initiative, reaching 164 settlements and benefiting 44,000 people across the Kharkiv, Sumy, Donetsk, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions.

The project aims to support communities by providing planting kits, including seeds and fertilizer, to help restore food independence in territories recently liberated from occupation. Currently, the foundation is focusing on 15 orphanages in the Kharkiv region, where it is installing greenhouses, distributing preservation kits, organizing educational workshops, and offering psychological support for children and staff.

Building on the initiative’s early success, the team has developed a mobile application designed to engage a wider audience in Ukraine’s ecological recovery.

Participation is simple: users download the app and contribute 10 dollars or more to plant trees. In return, each user receives a virtual plot of land where they can plant trees and track their growth. Once enough funds are raised to plant at least 30 trees, the organization carries out the actual planting in line with seasonal requirements. Each planting is logged in the app, and participants receive notifications on the progress of their trees. The first round of planting is scheduled for late fall, with plans to plant more than 1,000 trees by year’s end.

The Reroot team is available for consultations both online and in person in Kyiv, by appointment.

• ecology
• reconstruction
• Kyiv

Serhii Railian, a sergeant in Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces from Mykolaiv, carries the scars of war both seen and unseen. At 28, with three military contracts behind him, he has endured profound loss and emerged with a story of resilience.

In 2014, Serhii enrolled in university, aspiring to a career as a programmer. But a year later, at 18, he signed his first military contract and was sent to the front lines.

By late 2021, Serhii had married and was preparing to leave military service. Those plans were shattered when russia launched a full-blown war. He first encountered the intensity of the renewed conflict near Shchastia in Luhansk. In November of that year, while serving in Donetsk, an anti-tank mine claimed both his legs and his eyesight. Serhii survived a coma, but doctors were unable to restore his vision.

Recently, Serhii graduated from the Pottery in the Dark project at the EthnoChary art space in Vinnytsia. The program brought together ten participants from across Ukraine, offering them the chance to learn the fundamentals of pottery. Beyond teaching a craft, the project aims to empower participants to continue working with clay independently. Every graduate received a junior pottery wheel, along with a complete set of tools and materials to pursue their work at home. For Serhii, this has sparked the idea of launching his own pottery business.

Journalists can arrange interviews with Serhii either offline or online in Kyiv. Viktoriia Nikolaieva, a mentor for the Pottery in the Dark project in Vinnytsia, is also available for comment. An exhibition featuring pottery by blind veterans is scheduled in Vinnytsia at the end of September.

The Pottery in the Dark project was organized by the Center for Socially Inclusive Partnership in collaboration with EthnoChary, as part of the Enhanced Partnership for Sustainable Recovery (EPSR) initiative. The project is funded by the Swedish government through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and implemented in Ukraine by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

• casualties
• culture
• military
• Kyiv
• Vinnytsia

On September 2, the Media Center Ukraine will host a briefing “Lawsuit by the State Service on Ethnic Policy for the liquidation of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC (MP)”

Participants:

• Viktor Yelenskyi, Head of the State Service of Ukraine on Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (in person). 

Key topics:

• Recognition of the UOC-MP as affiliated with a foreign religious organization, the Russian Orthodox Church; 
• The Kyiv Metropolis’s failure to comply with Ukrainian state requirements;
• The government’s next legal steps. 

Background: The State Service of Ukraine on Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) has filed a lawsuit to strip the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) of its legal status. The agency previously recognized the church as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church and demanded proof of independence from Moscow. The Kyiv Metropolis refused to comply, prompting the case to move into the court system. This marks the first lawsuit, setting a significant precedent in Ukraine’s religious policy and national security.

• religion
• Kyiv

On September 2, the Media Center Ukraine will host a briefing “No roof over their heads: Ukraine’s freed civilians face housing crisis despite legal rights”

Participants:

• Ihor Kotelianets, Head of the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin;
• Svitlana Odintsova, Legal Analyst at the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin;
• Serhii Davydiuk, Recently Released from Illegal Detention;
• Representative of the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine;
• Representative of the Zaporizhia Oblast Military Administration (online);
• Representative of the Bucha City Council in the Kyiv region (online). 

Key topics:

• Do freed civilians receive state-provided housing?
• Gaps in legislation and local enforcement;
• How state decisions translate into action at the community level;
• What must change to guarantee housing rights after release?

Registration is required to attend the event.

• casualties
• Kyiv

On September 6, the first “Dragon Boat Kyiv – 2025” festival will be held in the capital of Ukraine, featuring unique races on dragon boats among military personnel, and veterans, including those with disabilities.

Twenty teams are expected to participate, with boats designed for 10 or 20 rowers. During the competition, participants will complete three 200-meter races: qualifying rounds, semifinals, and finals. The sports festival will conclude with a solemn bonfire to honor fallen warriors.

Background: The organizers of the event are the Communal Enterprise “Military Sport” and the Sports Club “Mala Flotylyia”.

• culture
• Kyiv

This September, hundreds of Ukrainians and friends of Ukraine will once again gather at the starting line to send a clear message: every prisoner must come home. Registration is now open for the annual advocacy race Run for Freedom, launched on the initiative of students at the Kyiv School of Economics together with historian and professor Timothy Snyder.

The race is set for September 13 in Kyiv, with participants able to choose between 1.5 km and 10 km distances.

For the second consecutive year, Timothy Snyder, professor, UNITED24 ambassador, and longtime friend of Ukraine, will personally take part in the run. Joining him will be military personnel and veterans freed from captivity, families of defenders still in captivity, and all those committed to supporting the return of Ukrainians held by russia.

Participation is free for service members, veterans, and families of prisoners.

After covering organizational costs, the KSE Foundation will direct all proceeds from ticket sales to support Ukraine’s Defense Forces, with a full public report on how the funds are used.

Last year, more than 1,000 Ukrainians joined the Run for Freedom.

Journalists must be accredited to cover the event.

For reference: Organizers include KSE Foundation, DefDev, the national RECOVERY network of rehabilitation centers for wounded soldiers, and the Heart of Azovstal project supporting Mariupol’s defenders. Media partners are ShoTam media outlet, 1+1 Ukraine TV channel, and Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

• culture
• Kyiv

On August 29, the Media Center Ukraine will host a briefing “Violations of diplomatic norms toward Ukraine and growing tolerance for sanctions evasion: New study exposes russian propaganda in Spanish media”

Participants:

– Dmytro Kornienko, political scientist, founder of the Resurgam International Information and Analytical Community (in person). 

Key topics:

– The scope and quality of Spanish media coverage of russia’s invasion of Ukraine;

– Spanish authors and experts flagged for breaching journalistic standards or promoting russian propaganda and placed in the Resurgam’s “red zone”;

– Key sources and cases of russian disinformation, fakes, and manipulations in Spanish-speaking media;

– Presentation of an open online platform for verifying the reliability of foreign media outlets and journalists, designed to reveal ties to russia or conflicts of interest.

• Kyiv

On August 29, the Media Center Ukraine will host a briefing “Between Bakhmut and russian colonies: The search for three thousand missing soldiers in battles with PMC Wagner”

Participants:

– Svitlana Merkulova, representative of the I Will Definitely Return Families’ Community;

– Olena Belyachkova, coordinator for families of POWs and missing persons groups, Media Initiative for Human Rights;

– Volodymyr Bilenko, representative of the Search Department of the Central Department of Civil-Military Cooperation of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; 

– Anastasiia Shydlovska, head of the department of the Office for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances of the Secretariat of the Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. 

Key topics:

– Why is it so difficult to determine the fate of those who went missing in battles with the russian private military company Wagner?

– Current search efforts and the tools that are still lacking;

– How to support families who have been left facing uncertainty for years.

• Kyiv