How curfews, ride-hailing and technology reshape life in Kyiv after dark.

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Photo by Alin Gavriliuc on Unsplash

Ukrainian real estate market: not an investment pitch but a window into how a country at war adapts.

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Image: bunker project on stroimdom.com.ua

Ukrainians spend 84% of their monthly budgets on essentials. In Germany and the Netherlands, that number is 56-59%. Only 1% goes to leisure in Ukraine, while in France it’s 19%.

One important caveat — this data has its limits.

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Kyiv has a kind of small business you won’t find in most cities. But rising energy costs and inflation are not helping those who miscalculated. This week’s episode is about MAFs.

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Image: MAF by skymax

I am, fortunately, a pleasant enough person that people keep inviting me to their weddings. I have been to enough weddings, in places like Paris, Istanbul, Slovakia, across Ukraine, and in other cultures, to have opinions.

Last weekend, I was at one again. We celebrated love, as one does.

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Image: Return from the Wedding, Ivan Ayvazovskyy, 1891

Ukrainian stand-up didn’t start in a club with a brick wall and a microphone. It began in the post-Soviet 90s, shared on audiocassettes.

At the center of it all was someone most people know from Eurovision: Verka Serduchka. She took second place at Eurovision 2007, with her sequins, silver star, and the song that got Europeans dancing in their chairs.

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This episode was originally published on April 17, 2026.

Image: Verka Serducka, photo by telekritika.ua

While the world watches gas prices, I stand on the black prize.

All eyes are on the Middle East and the surging price of oil, the “black gold.” We know its price will eventually dictate the cost of your commute and heating. But there is another black gold that doesn’t burn but feeds.

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This episode was originally published on April 10, 2026.

Photo by Andrii Motygullin on Unsplash

Talking from exoerience living in multiple countries, Ukrainian service culture has a special quality that you might not notice until you leave. It’s not just about being available, though that stands out. It’s the attitude — the feeling that you are truly welcome, not just tolerated.

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This episode was originally published on April 3, 2026.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Everyone in their place. Not everywhere at once. Not helping with everything because the guilt of not doing enough feels louder than the question of where you actually belong.

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This episode was originally published on March 27, 2026.

Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash

When the whole world was searching “World War Three,” Ukraine’s top search was “When is Easter in 2026.”

I noticed that and laughed. Then I thought about it for a while.

That is not indifference.

Dark humor from inside a war zone is not the same thing as dark humor from outside it. Psychologists call it a coping mechanism.

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This episode was originally published on March 20, 2026.

Image: Democritus, Hendrick ter Brugghen, 1628