Olexandra Lieonova, holding presents for her friends, expects 'modest' Christmas festivities in Ukraine this year, and definitely no fireworks. 'The loud sounds would scare people.'Photography by Anton Skyba/The Globe and Mail
The Dream Town mall in north Kyiv was distinctly absent of Christmas cheer last Saturday. Normally, the mall – the capital’s biggest – would be stuffed with shoppers and their children and lined with Christmas trees and decorations.
On that morning, the tentatively festive mood vanished in an instant when the air raid sirens sounded. The shops pulled down their steel shutters, and everyone in the mall fled outside, some to nearby metro stations, which double as bomb shelters. No Russian missiles or drones hit the city – they did the day before – and by about 2 p.m. store employees and shoppers had trickled back in.
One shopper was Olexandra Lieonova, 32, who works as an interpreter and secretary at the Kuwaiti embassy. She had bought a book, a Ukrainian translation of The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett, and handed it to the middle-aged woman in a small kiosk who wraps gifts for a small fee.
“We Ukrainians will celebrate Christmas despite the war, but the celebrations will be modest and my family may not set up a Christmas tree,” Ms. Lieonova said. “We certainly will not have a loud celebration with fireworks. During a war, it is not a good idea to have fireworks. The loud sounds would scare people.”
Ukrainians install a Christmas tree in Kyiv and gather at a Christmas event to raise money for the war effort.
The Dream Town mall is a modern American-style wonder by Ukrainian standards. Its three levels contain hundreds of shops, including those of leading U.S. and Italian brands, and it devotes a lot of space to entertainment to attract families – a roller skating rink, cinema, bowling alley, small water park and a stage for concerts.
One of the recent additions is the “energy hub,” a converted shop where local residents deprived of electricity and heat – a regular occurrence as Russia targets power grids throughout the country – can warm up and charge their phones and computers. Kyiv’s blackouts can last four to 12 hours, enough time to turn houses and apartments into freezers during bleak Ukrainian winters.
By mid-afternoon Saturday, these spots were thinly populated. On the top floor, a few dozen people listened to a Christmas concert staged to raise funds for the military. The exceedingly loud music seemed to please the kids, some of whom bopped in front of the stage.
One of them was seven-year-old Olena, who was there with her father, Serhiy Rohoznyy, 48, a financial auditor. He said he was trying ever so gently to send the message to his three children that this Christmas will be different from previous ones (in Ukraine, Christmas is often celebrated on both Dec. 25, using the Gregorian calendar, and Jan. 7, using the Julian calendar).
“I told the children that there is no Santa Claus this year,” he said, grimacing. “We are trying to save money because inflation is so high. We are especially worried this year because my parents and my wife’s parents are in occupied territory, in Donetsk,” the city in the southeast that has been held by Russian forces since October.
Inflation is running at more than 25 per cent as the central bank prints money to help pay for the war, which is consuming well more than half the government’s budget and is pushing millions into poverty, making it impossible for them to enjoy a normal Christmas full of gifts and seasonal foods and drinks.
'I told the children that there is no Santa Claus this year,' says Serhiy Rohoznyy, shown with daughter Olena, 7, at the mall's Christmas charity event.
Mr. Rohoznyy said Olena seems to have accepted that this Christmas will not be as festive. She has also demonstrated a child’s awareness of the war. “Olena told us yesterday, ‘We don’t want Grandpa Frost to come this year because the guns will shoot him down.’”
He explained that she was referring to the Ukrainian anti-aircraft guns used to take aim at the missiles and drones that targeted Kyiv three times in the past week. “When the air raid sirens come, Olena comes close to me and tells me to avoid the windows,” he said.
Not far way, on the northern outskirts of Kyiv, Ukrainian soldiers of the 112 Territorial Defence Brigade were contemplating a chilly Christmas in the snowy, muddy fields, where they will be lucky to get a warm bowl of soup or traditional kutya wheat-berry pudding on Dec. 25. “Everyone will be celebrating Christmas in their positions,” said Andrii Kovalov, the press officer for the brigade. “The military chaplain will bring them kutya, but alcohol of course will be prohibited.”
Oleh Vasylyshyn shows the machine gun he used to shoot down a Russian missile.
Brigade member Oleh Vasylyshyn 25, said he expected to be in action on Christmas Day and was not bothered by the prospect of using his weapon. He became an instant national hero on Dec. 17 when he – against all odds – shot down a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile with a Russian-made Kalashnikov automatic rifle. The missile was descending on Kyiv, and he fired some 50 rounds at it, splitting it in half. Normally, such weapons can be taken out only by sophisticated surface-to-air missiles.
At a small medal ceremony the next day to celebrate his success, Mr. Vasylyshyn said: “We expect something from the Russians on Christmas, but we don’t mind since we have proven we can resist any attack.”
Back at the Dream Town mall, Ms. Lieonova was also expecting a Christmas attack. “Russia can bomb us on any day and they may bomb us on Christmas just to make us angry,” she said. “We will get angry, but that will make us fight harder. We will never surrender.”
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