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Ostblog Posts

Hotdogs for Ukrainian soldiers taking a break from fighting

Arka and Dub were queuing up for the “best hotdog in Kramatorsk”. The place is a popular hangout spot for Ukrainian soldiers taking a break from duty at the frontlines around 20km away. Both are from Zakarpatia, the extreme West of Ukraine and had no problem communicating in Russian with…

Pensioners in Krivyi Rih – nostalgics of the Soviet Union and patriotic Ukrainians

These are Alexandr and Svetlana with her granddaughter Sofia in the centre of their home city Kriviy Rih in Eastern Ukraine. The largely Russian-speaking city is a major iron ore mining hub and the hometown of President Zelensky. During Soviet times, Alexandr was stationed in Kaliningrad in a nuclear rocket…

Stories of the war in Donbas and a pizza restaurant as a save space for veterans

Leonid is co-founder of Veterano Pizza, a restaurant in Kyiv run by veterans of the Donbas war. Over a pizza and beer, he told me his story. “When the Russians infiltrated the Donbas, I wanted to go there and fight immediately. But the army did not take me. I only…