Kateryna Popova recently returned to her native Ukraine after completing an MA in War Studies in London where she joined meetings of the AEJ UK. She has sent us her first impressions of life in the city at war.
26 May 2025
Yesterday, my mother woke me up with a call and yelled at me. It was the second night of massive attacks in Kyiv, with drones and long-range missiles.
“Go back to London! Why on Earth did you come back?”
I came back in September 2024 after completing my Master’s at King’s. I fell in love with London and British culture, and there were many reasons to stay, with freshly baked scones being on top of them. But being a student at the Department of War Studies, I quickly came to a sobering realisation that my degree was needed at home.
These May attacks are pretty common. I recall a sleepless May 2023, when I visited Kyiv for a month and spent most nights in a shelter or a bathroom. At that time, Russians primarily used long-range missiles.
Now we mainly get drones. Ukrainian air defence has progressed to the level that it can neutralise almost all expensive Russian missiles. Now, there is a theory that Russians simply don’t want to waste money on missiles that are not penetrating our air defence. On the other hand, Ukrainian intelligence has reported that there will be another expensive missile attack in the upcoming week. I guess the stakes are very high for Russians, after all.
The drones, however, are a different story. They are cheap, they can cause significant damage, and you have to shoot them manually. Sometimes when the drone attack lasts till morning, I can see defence crews with equipment shooting the drones just on the side of the road on my way to work.
But May 25th was a different story. It was the day of Kyiv, and the Russians have a habit of greeting us on holidays. There are also failed negotiations, but an average Ukrainian would tell you that Russian terror does not need a reason.
War feels different when you are in Ukraine. I was born in the Sumy region, and most of my relatives are still there. From London, with every alert, with every news article, it seemed that both my home and my memories were being erased.
In Ukraine, war has become a daily routine. There is a curfew, pain, and loss, but at the same time, there is brutal honesty about what it entails. How can an average Ukrainian believe in any will of the Russians to negotiate if there is a drone attack after every statement about a ceasefire? This brutal honesty is what gives me peace of mind. There is no discussion about right and wrong when you are under fire.
While I was working on this column, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz released a statement that there were no restrictions on the range of weapons delivered to Ukraine, neither by the UK, France, Germany, nor the US. At the same time, the Sumy State Administration reported that Russians controlled four Ukrainian villages near the border.
A couple of weeks ago, I worked with Dave Thomas, a Canadian actor and film director, on a documentary about his trip to Ukraine. [Thomas is a multi-award winning actor and writer/producer best known in Canada for being half of the iconic McKenzie Brothers tv comedy show – Ed.]
Dave is in his seventies. Two years ago, he was sick and was sent to a hospice to die, and the doctors gave up on him. Still, he survived. Dave came to Kyiv on the invitation of the Ukrainian Freedom Fund to find a human perspective on war. He spoke with veterans, displaced families from eastern Ukraine, students, comedians, and grandmothers guarding the apartment buildings.
“You, Ukrainians, stubbornly refuse to disappear,” he said at the end of the trip.
It pretty much sums it up.
May 26, 2025
Kate (Kateryna) Popova
MA Strategic Communications, King’s College London
Managing Director at PLEON Talan
