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Ukrainian servicemen unload potatoes in Kyiv. 

Ukrainian servicemen unload potatoes in Kyiv. 

Photographer: Diana Andrunyk/Bloomberg CityLab

CityLab
Culture

The Fight to Feed the Ukrainian Resistance

A national network of cooks, restaurateurs and bakers has rallied to provide meals for Ukraine’s military and civilian population as the war with Russia grinds on. 

Taras Kaidan and Mariana Matveichuk

Two days after the Russian invasion began, Dmytro Borysov’s restaurants went to war.

The Kyiv chef-owner behind a chain of more than 50 eateries across Ukraine, Borysov had plenty of food sitting in warehouses, but all his restaurants had been shuttered in the opening hours of the war. “At the same time, we received our first hot meal requests from the military,” says the 41-year-old restaurateur. “We decided to open the first volunteer kitchen in one of our restaurants.”