Ukrainians visit scaled-back Christmas tree installed in downtown Kyiv

Record ID: 1703239

  • Title: Ukrainians visit scaled-back Christmas tree installed in downtown Kyiv
  • Date: 17th December 2022
  • Summary: KYIV, UKRAINE (DECEMBER 17, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF CHRISTMAS TREE BEING INSTALLED ON SOFIYSKA SQUARE PEOPLE WALKING ION SOFIYSKA SQUARE (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) LOCAL RESIDENT, TETIANA (NO LAST NAME GIVEN), SAYING: “We came to see the Christmas tree being installed. We think it must be here because people live here: Ukrainians, children need the holiday even though th
  • Embargoed: 31st December 2022 17:24
  • Keywords: Christmas Christmas tree Power outages Russian invasion War in Ukraine
  • Location: KYIV, UKRAINE
  • City: KYIV, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001741317122022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A Christmas tree was installed in downtown Kyiv on Saturday (December 17), after the latest wave of Russian air strikes on critical infrastructure, as residents navigated a city gripped by fog and girded for a holiday season marked by uncertainty.
    The ‘Christmas tree of invincibility’, as Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko called it, was installed in a dark Sofiyska square.
    The vast space in front of the centuries-old St. Sophia Cathedral is traditionally anchored by a hulking evergreen at Christmas. But officials this year opted for a 12-metre (40-foot) artificial tree festooned with energy-saving lights powered by a generator.
    Tetiana, local resident, liked the smaller-than-usual tree.
    “We think it must be here because people live here: Ukrainians, children need the holiday even though the war is ongoing,” Tetiana told Reuters.
    "I doubt this will be a true holiday," said Kyiv resident Iryna Soloychuk, who arrived with her daughter to see the tree just hours after another round of air-raid alerts wailed across the country.
    "But we should understand that we're all together, that we should help one another."
    Klitschko said the tree was funded by donors and businesses, and that no public celebrations would take place.
    Orthodox Christians make up the majority of Ukraine's 43 million people.
    (Production: Yurii Khomenko, Andrii Pryimachenko)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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