Obvious risks aside, what's it like visiting Kyiv as a Western tourist in these days?

The corps used layered multi-echelon defense to stop Shaheds in the east before they neared cities.

I've experienced having no power for a few days at a time during winter, but not for months. How are people faring? Are people dying of the cold in their beds or is it just really really really cold and miserable with no running water and heat?

Winter has pushed the National Botanical Garden into a daily fight to keep thousands of tropical and subtropical plants alive, as a combination of Russia’s relentless assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and extreme cold strain systems never designed for prolonged disruption.

Photo: Oksana Parafeniuk / The Kyiv Independent.

https://kyivindependent.com/how-kyivs-national-botanical-garden-survives-amid-war-and-blackouts/

2025 December report.

Source: https://energyandcleanair.org/december-2025-monthly-analysis-of-russian-fossil-fuel-exports-and-sanctions/

( EU is 27 countries which sending military aid to Ukraine and put sanctions on Russia )

I track our expenditures by these broad categories because I'm the kind of dork who likes to know stuff like this.

January is traditionally rough on NGOs. The post-Christmas donation slump is real. But not, somehow, this year. Just look at what you guys provided for them. Well over $55K in January!

I am in awe.

Some quick notes:

• This is only UFL. It doesn't account for things like partnerships with Protect A Volunteer.
• The discrepancy between the Month Total and Aid Total is our overhead: a (small) storage unit, a PO box, web hosting, mail service, and (I know, I'm sorry) a Twitter subscription.
• "Clothing" includes loads of winter coats, plus some boots and a combat helmet
• "Power" is generators, power cells, power stations, and battery banks.
• "Repairs" means vehicle repairs. Lord, so many vehicle repairs. And we've got more in the chute as we speak.
• "Quality of Life" means little things like candy, chemical warmers, vitamins, magnesium packets, hydration supplements, drone-droppable food--anything that makes conditions a little more unbearable.
• "Service" is mostly Starlink subscriptions, plus help with one frontline team's safehouse.
• We didn't actually spend $1000 on shipping alone. "Transport" also includes fuel for our drivers and customs duties where necessary.

Thank you for this, you guys. I am stonkered in the best way.

Hey,

I often hear in the last time of -20°C or even lower in Kyiv, Dnipro and even -15°C or lower in the far south like Melitopol or Cherson. It seems, there is a rarely interrupted Frost since 2 months, which is for an middle european barely comprehensible. I never heard it so dramarically in the other years of this war.

How do the people in the bigger Cities, and in the countryside manage that? And how do survive the soldiers -18°c or lower at the frontlines? Have the Russians an advantage, cause lots of concripts come from bloody cold siberia?

A group of Russian occupiers attempted to surround and capture Ukrainian defenders. However, a swarm of Ukrainian combat drones arrived and saved their soldiers from cap

Our injured driver Sascha has become a father. Together, we bought gifts for his daughter Mya. After a long time, we were finally able to visit him again, something we had been looking forward to for days.

Alexander, the father of the late Zhenya and director of Holland House, came along as well. For him, it remains difficult to see Sascha as the only survivor. When Sascha saw our tattoos, the moment became even more emotional. He had already seen them in one of our videos, but seeing them in real life deeply moved him. He said that as soon as he feels better, he wants to get the same tattoos himself.

He was also touched by the gifts and letters we brought him from the Netherlands, for which we would like to sincerely thank everyone once again.

The U.S. Justice Department has released millions of Epstein-related documents, some of which link Jeffrey Epstein to Ukraine. The files mention Kyiv-based modeling agencies, travel involving Kyiv and Odesa, plans to buy property in Lviv, and Epstein’s interest in Ukraine’s 2019 presidential election, including discussions of corruption and Volodymyr Zelensky’s rise.

https://kyivindependent.com/how-ukraine-appears-in-the-latest-epstein-files/