Thread by @timkmak

Good morning to readers -- Merry Christmas from Ukraine.

A quiet day in Kyiv. Air alarms have gone off, but no explosions in the capital so far.

Many Ukrainians are celebrating Christmas on Dec 25th for the first time.

Celebrating Christmas on Jan 7th, along with Eastern Orthodox Church and Russian adherents, has been tradition.

But this year many are celebrating on Dec 25, and the West, as a political point.

For e.g., the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces:

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1606947664897228800

I was having coffee with someone last night, he said they had to rush off to the Kyiv suburbs soon -- they were due to celebrate Christmas Eve dinner for the first time ever in December.

I have the sense that this is happening all across this country.

npr.org/2022/12/23/114…

It's also Hanukkah.

Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure have left millions w/o power, which gives new meaning to the Jewish 'Festival of Lights.'

We took a look at how they're celebrating the holiday in Odesa for All Things Considered:

npr.org/2022/12/24/114…

The Chief Rabbi of Odesa, Avraham Wolff, welcomed us to his synagogue -- where the sound of construction is in the air.

"People came to me and said, Rabbi, so many Jews have left here. Is there a future for this synagogue, the community, the country?" Wolff told us.

Odesa has deep Jewish roots, but the Jewish population has shrunk. Before World War II, about a third of the city's population was Jewish. Now, Wolff estimates that number at about 5%. But he's expanding the synagogue, originally built in the 19th century as a message.

Wolff explains why he's expanding his synagogue in a time of war:

"God will hear us and bring war to an end in this country. And people will come back because we show them that we believe there is a future."

Odesa gets very dark at night nowadays due to a lack of power. Many people are living and dining and working by flickering candlelight. It feels like the whole city is celebrating Hanukkah, along with the members of Wolff's community.

Wolff told a story that showed just how deeply connected Odesa is to its Jewish traditions.

Wolff and some of his assistants have bolted battery-powered menorahs to the top of their cars

This week, as they marked the holiday, his driver was pulled over by a police officer.

Wolff recalled, "Police stopped him and said, you've set the lights wrong! It is the third day of Hanukkah! Today should be three, and you've put eight on!"

He laughed pretty hard at that.

Spotted in Kyiv, two of my favorite things:

People have adjusted quickly to the frequent blackouts. No I’m bats an eye now when the lights go out, like in this cafe here in Kyiv. They wait a few minutes for the generator to kick in, then continue.

Air alerts have become pretty routine as well. And the intel on what kind of threat has become pretty advanced -- oftentimes Ukrainians look at their phones and start reading out the military platform that missiles might be launched from. In open source Telegram channels!

Over the last few days I've heard people casually glance at their phones and say,

"Oh there's a MIG-31 over Belarus…"
or
"Enemy UAV is in the air.."

All from public information released on Ukrainian social media.

I myself am in a festive mood.

What, it’s weird to carry a one liter bottle of sriracha around everywhere?

Nah, we will say it’s a new Christmas tradition.

The colors are even red and green!

Shoutout to my friend @cgrisales. When she heard I was heading back to Ukraine, she rushed to the store to get me a parting gift of Sriracha.

Of course, there is a Sriracha shortage in the U.S. — she went to EIGHT DIFFERENT STORES to find this one bottle.

She’s a Christmas hero

In Kyiv, where much of the city is without power, they set up a Christmas tree powered by a bicycle.

So you know we had to go see it. Bit of a workout, that!

It’s freezing. We interviewed someone for nearly three hours in a place without heat.

Easy fix:

25 push-ups for the 25th of December.

Who is with me?

My friend predicts we will have a quiet evening: “It’s this old Soviet mentality. They work Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday no missile strikes. Then restart on Monday.”

Today’s dog of war is this tagged dog living on the street. Hope this pup can find a place to stay warm.

It got some love from the people here at the supermarket before moving on.

We ran into this couple who were getting married on Christmas Day.

It had been a hard year but they decided to go through with their wedding to end the year on a positive note.

The wedding, she said, did the trick.

Congrats to Hannah and Sergey!

Emergency additional dog of war: Varya, who is wearing a Christmas sweater, and who I ran into tonight unexpectedly

On that note will you send me your Christmas dogs of peace?

Varya needs some company. She can be reached on her instagram at instagram.com/varya.thedog?i…