Most people completely underestimate the insane, inhumane scale of the war in Ukraine.
A Day In The Life
Jocelyn and I wear Ukrainian flag pins on our jackets. We get a lot of enquiries about the country behind the flag. “You’ve been to Ukraine? In a war? What’s it like for Ukrainians? How do they live? What’s it like in the middle of a war?”
Well. how about last week?
Our friend sent us the following pictures on Saturday May 30th.
I share them because you won’t see them in Canadian social media or on the 6:00 News. June 1st, 2026 is the 1558th day of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
During the last week of May, students celebrate graduation. They dress up, hold dances, and celebrate with parents. We saw many pictures and videos of teens whose father or father and mother were absent because they were serving in the war or
worse still, dead.
The image to the left is a young girl at her father’s grave in her graduation dress.
Children and teens in Ukraine deserve a better future.
Ukrainian Stories
Ukrainian’s tell it like it is.
“My first fear after the start of the full-scale invasion is quite trivial. Like, in fact, everyone’s. I fear a missile would strike while I am taking a shower. And I could see these pictures in my head — they would clear the rubble and take out my plumpy, naked, and wet body. So, I learned to wash within 3 minutes between alerts. I would jump out of the shower and be like, “Whew, not this time”.
“My mother had her own fear. What if a missile hit her house, everything was smashed, chickens running around, ducks were not fed, and the vegetable garden was overgrown with weeds? That’s what she would tell me: “I am weeding the vegetable garden, my dear, in case a missile hits, so I have no weeds all over my potatoes.”
“On the morning of January 2, the Russians launched their most massive missile attack on Ukraine. When tons of explosives were flying over Kyiv, my friend Katia politely went to the subway, where we hide from missiles. And people were shuddering from the explosions in the subway, and Katia texted us:
“Oh, there was such an explosion I almost dropped my croissant.”
We would write back, dumbfounded: “Katia, what croissant? Where are you?”
And Katya replied with such calmness: “I went out for coffee, what’s wrong? I am a Ukrainian woman. I want coffee and a croissant, and no Russian Kalibr is going to stop me”.
Compassion at a Café
The US has stopped supplying Ukraine with defensive systems leaving them vulnerable to attack. Last week, Kyiv suffered incredible damage from over 600 Russian drones and 70 missiles. (The city of Kyiv was founded 1,544 years ago and is celebrated on May 31st each year.)
One of our pastors messaged me pictures of the devastation including the damage in a café.
Next, he wrote, “And in the morning, people came to support the café owner, who had opened his café just one day before the missile attack on Kyiv.
He had sold his apartment to open the café.
People stood in line that morning to buy coffee and pastries from him.”
This video captures the chaos inside a café in Kramatorsk during a rocket attack during the day. Warning: the images may be triggering.
Poltava
Last summer we stayed in Poltava. Our friend’s apartment building was hit by a drone. Last week another attack. He sent us this picture.
“This is Poltava two days ago at 11 p.m.
An Iskander-M missile.
There was a very loud explosion.”
According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, the siege of Mariupol alone saw between 27,000 and 88,000 civilian deaths in only three months.
On May 29, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia was gearing up for a large-scale aerial strike, coming after a deadly hypersonic missile hit near Kyiv that killed four and injured dozens.
And lastly, kindness continues to pave a way to peace. Our friends were busy today delivering hope. 
November
In less than six months, Jocelyn and I will be back in Ukraine. Do you expect the war will be over by then? We hope so but we won’t be deterred from travelling to BE with people who can’t leave.
We’ll be raising money for a special project. I’ll write more about that in the weeks ahead. My employer has made serving in Ukraine part of my role which is so kind of them. We get great support.
Jocelyn and I ask that you pray for us. And please let people you know who care about people and particularly Ukrainians to follow our writing and our travels.
We’d love it if you would join the conversation and post a comment below.
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