Photographer: Óskar Hallgrímsson
Before the war, my cafe was a bright room filled with plants. We made tasty food and the atmosphere was very relaxed. I’m from Dnepropetrovsk originally and had been living in Kyiv for eight years. I love the city and was just enjoying my life and never thinking about tomorrow. But, when Putin invaded my country, I wanted to help and show the world that Ukraine was ready to unite. So, I turned my business into a kitchen for soldiers.
The café was never just a business designed to make money for me— It was always about community. Everyone in Ukraine loves our country and we’ll do whatever we need to help and support her.
When the violence started, I knew I couldn’t flee. Although the decision was dangerous, when people thank me for feeding them, I know I made the right choice to stay here. There’s a great happiness to be found in serving other people and I’m very happy we can be helpful to those who are protecting our country.
Once I’d decided to turn the café into a kitchen for soldiers, everything came together very quickly. I used the food production technique I already had to create meals using leftover food and had amazing support from our twelve staff members. Quickly, volunteers started to help us source food, distribute meals, and get deliveries of food to people when they needed them. We also have my bulldog Bruce in the café with us, who has been very happy about all the food falling on the floor in the chaos.
Usually, we cook about 1400 portions per day and I'm trying to get that number closer to 2000. The more people that we cook for, the better job they can do protecting our country. In the current conditions, we’ve mostly been delivering food to the military rather than hosting them in the café and have also been giving groceries to neighbours and people sheltering. It’s always been my dream to cook for a lot of people but I never thought it would happen like this.
But victory is on our side and as long as I can be here to help, I will be. I’m not scared, I just hate not being able to plan for the future because we never know how many portions of food we can make tomorrow or how many volunteers we’ll have left.
My family texts me every day to tell me how proud they are of me. My sister is here with me in Ukraine and has been helping me with the project. But my boyfriend got stuck in Georgia where he was skiing on holiday just before the invasion. I had this strange feeling and told him to stay in Georgia until this thing with Russia ended. The next day, we woke up with the invasion.
My home will always be my home. We will rebuild Ukraine and it will be even better than before. I have no doubt that we’ll get through this—I just feel so angry that Russia has ruined my country for so many years. There has been so much destruction of our cultural heritage. But I’m not going to give up. War always ends and I’m sure this one will end with our victory.
‘Once Russia Invaded My Country, I Knew I Had To Use Paris Fashion Week To Help My Community’ 'They Told Me, If You’re Black You Should Walk': Racist Treatment At Ukrainian Borders Is Putting Lives At Risk