Life in Ukraine

“What was once a place of happiness became a site of tragedy,” says Daryna, a Mariupol native. For thousands of Ukrainian families, 2022 was the last time they celebrated winter holidays at home. Soon after, Russia launched its full-scale war, and those homes were occupied or destroyed—sometimes both.

An increasing number of Ukrainian documentaries are embracing a “mosaic” style of storytelling, opting for a self-sufficient narrative that eschews voice-over narration. With an unflinching vision, Kateryna Gornostai’s Timestamp portrays Ukrainian children navigating classrooms amidst the backdrop of Russia’s full-scale war, offering an intimate, hyper-focused account of youth and teachers.

In just a few years, Ukraine has gone from paper queues to a digital revolution—putting everything from driver’s licenses to military IDs in a smartphone. To advance the country’s digital transformation, Ukraine launched the CDTO Campus, a national training project that creates digital leaders who are reengineering government from the inside out.

Studying underground has become the reality for many Ukrainian children living in close proximity to the border with Russia and the frontline. We visited two kindergartens in Zaporizhzhia and Vilniansk, a city in the region, to see how the kids celebrate St. Nicholas Day underground.

Every winter since 2022, Ukraine has lived through what people now call Blackout —mass power outages Russian missile and drone attacks caused. While Russia spends billions to plunge ordinary people into darkness, thousands of energy workers are doing the extraordinary to keep the country’s lights on.

We meet 31-year-old Vitalii Veres in a hospital ward. On the bed opposite, sits his girlfriend. “I always tell her: don’t let go of me or I’ll get lost,” Vitalii jokes. A few days from now, he will have surgery to prepare a fitting for a prosthetic eye. For now—while he has some free time—he’s working on his social media blog.