Jay in Kyiv

American in Ukraine

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

@RepDonBacon Serving Putin is the core of Trump's foreign policy.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

@Cobratate Na, that ass smell is just russia. You'll get used to it.

[Rohoza (Дев'ятий) Mykhailo 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇨🇦 @Oct7NeverForget]

If Satan has a residence on Earth, it is in Russia: the story of former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, who survived Russian captivity.

After seeing Russia from the inside, he described it as a moral void, completely incompatible with Ukraine.

In captivity, he survived purely through willpower—holding on by sheer determination. When he finally returned home on August 24, 2025, it felt as though he had grown wings.

What struck him most was the way Ukrainians welcomed the released prisoners. From the Belarusian border all the way to Chernihiv, crowds stood along the roads waving Ukrainian flags. For the first time in a long while, he felt genuine respect and love.

Mykolayenko neither hid nor fled, even though he had the opportunity. He joined the Territorial Defense Forces because he asked himself a simple question: who else would protect his family?

He was given an assault rifle, but quickly realized that rifles alone cannot stop tanks.

The Russians lured him to a meeting under false pretenses, threw him into a car trunk, and took him away.

In captivity, he was beaten almost daily and suffered a broken rib. The occupiers offered him the position of head of the occupation administration, but he refused.

They demanded that he publicly condemn Roman Shukhevych, yet Mykolayenko instead called him a Hero of Ukraine.

Later, he was transferred between detention facilities—first to occupied Crimea, then to Russia’s Voronezh region, where the beatings became even more severe.

He never received a single letter from his family. He even refused prisoner exchanges, insisting that wounded young soldiers should be released in his place.

In his view, this war did not happen because of abstract mistakes. It happened because of geography and irresponsibility.

Russians chose Putin twenty-five years ago, and many continue to support him today. At the same time, too many members of Ukraine’s elite behave as if they have a “backup country”—Paris, Prague, New York—places they can escape to while blaming the people who were left behind.

But most Ukrainians have no alternative. There is no second homeland. There is only Ukraine.

According to Mykolayenko, the true strength of the country lies in its people—those who have survived occupation, torture, and loss, yet continue to fight.

Victory rests on two pillars: the soldiers who destroy the occupiers every day, and the civilians who do everything they can each day to ensure that the army can keep fighting.

He himself endured for the sake of his family and his faith in victory. He is proud of his daughter, who has been fighting since the first day of the war, and hopes that his grandchildren will one day be proud of both him and their country.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

@JESweet2022 @thehill Yep, now ukr has license for everything.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Fuel situation in Crimea as Ukraine's drone blockade tightens grip around the penninsula.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Commentators on mainstream Kremlin propaganda channels are no longer holding back when describing their catastrophe at the front.

This one complains that Ukraine has 10 drones for each Russian soldier.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Lines for fuel continue to break records all over Russian occupied Crimea as Ukraine's drone blockade intensifies.

A full 286 cars now in line at one station Belogorsk, Crimea.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Trump sent his "ballroom commissioner" to kiss Putin's ass and seemingly try to get some Trump family business done with the Kremlin, but first he had to spend a few minutes groveling and praising Russia and "culture".

What a disgusting fuck.

[Yulia Svyrydenko @Svyrydenko_Y]

Three years ago today, Russia destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant and dam, creating one of the world's greatest environmental catastrophes.

The resulting flood swept through communities across southern Ukraine, forcing thousands from their homes, contaminating water supplies, destroying farmland, and leaving deep environmental scars that will endure for generations. Nearly 100,000 people were directly affected, while the consequences extended far beyond the immediate flood zone.

The destruction of the Kakhovka dam was a deliberate attack on critical civilian infrastructure and one of the largest acts of environmental destruction in Europe in recent history.

Rescue workers, volunteers, local authorities, and ordinary citizens worked tirelessly to save lives, assist families, and rebuild what Russia sought to destroy.

Today, we remember those who suffered and honor the heroes who responded. Russia will be held accountable for every crime committed against Ukraine and our people.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

More majestic imagery resulting from Ukraine's new medium range drone capabilities on display today in Russian occupied Krestivka, in the Donetsk region.

Reportedly a substation, but appears to be more. Awaiting details..

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

The Kremlin continues to load up the Alabuga drone factory with teenagers and young adults as a means to kater grt sympathy and western concessions when Ukraine blows it up.

[Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en]

Russia’s "Alabuga Polytech" promises students up to 500,000 rubles a month for drone assembly.

Elvira Fomina, head of the "Alabuga Polytech college", currently under EU sanctions, claimed that a 20-year-old college student could earn up to 500,000 rubles per month.

The college is located within the Alabuga Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Tatarstan. According to media reports, hundreds of students are involved in manufacturing Russian variants of the Iranian Shahed drone. Over the past year, the college's territory has expanded by 340 hectares.

Media outlets report that in 2022, students were paid 30,000 rubles. By early 2025, advertising briefs sent to bloggers promised 70,000 rubles, and just a few months ago, the maximum salary ceiling was capped at 350,000 rubles.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Russian government issues a hotline aimed at aiding Russians trapped in Crimea due to the ongoing fuel crisis.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Yep.

It's over for Putin.

[Andrii Sybiha 🇺🇦 @andrii_sybiha]

No good news for the Russians.

By refusing President Zelenskyy’s offer for direct peace talks, Putin lost his chance to get out of his failed war.

Things will only get worse for Russia. Battlefield losses will continue to grow. Failures will get more humiliating.

The economy will plunge deeper into recession. More jobs will be lost, taxes will be growing, and inflation will hit those most vulnerable.

There are already no safe places in Russia that can be exempt from Ukraine’s long-range sanctions. But their intensity will continue to grow.

The international pressure will not ease. It will only get stronger. Including the use of frozen assets, travel bans, and inevitable accountability for crimes.

All of this because the fanatic in the Kremlin wants to keep in power at any cost and is ready to sacrifice his country’s future and kill millions of people for his insane delusions.

All of this because he doesn’t want to admit a simple truth: he will never achieve his goals on the battlefield and he better abandon his delusional hopes of Ukraine collapsing soon, support from its partners waning, or pressure on Russia easing.

Russia will still have to accept a diplomatic solution but the terms will be far worse.

Putin’s refusal of peace should lead to a significant increase in international pressure on Russia and support for Ukraine.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

"People are panicking" say residents of Crimea as grocery store shelves are stripped bare and limits on purchases introduced.

No more than 3 bags of sugar, 3 bags of buckwheat or pasta and other fantasies of the nostalgia for days of the USSR are back.

Rejoice comrades!!

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Russian oil refining continues to collapse.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Russians predicting that they will have no remaining fuel depots by autumn, and that a collapse at the front is coming due to the ongoing logistics and fuel crisis - eing that the army all runs on generators and vehicles reliant on diesel and gasoline.

He further cites that "farmers are freaking out right now" as farming dies with no fuel.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Russia's fuel storage depots in Ust-Labinsk, Krasnodar Krai, supplying gasoline and diesel across southern Russia, continuing to burn through the afternoon after early morning Ukrainian strikes.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

More devastating strikes by Ukraine's Armed Forces across Russia last night, among which being the massive fuel depots at Ust-Labinsk.

Containing up to 15,000 cubic meters of gasoline and diesel, this storage and transshipment facility receives fuel from refineries and redistributes it by rail and road.

Ust-Labinsk sits in Krasnodar Krai, one of Russia's most important logistics regions for supporting operations in southern Ukraine and occupied Crimea.

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Black markets for gasoline are popping up across Russian occupied Crimea, with prices 3-5x higher than just two weeks ago.

[Andrew Perpetua @AndrewPerpetua]

Russian telegram channels are going through their old videos editing out war crimes. Things they were once proud to show are being secretly removed. They apparently don’t realize their videos and messages are archived.