Holidays Under the Gun: East SOS Publishes Testimonies of Ukrainians from the Temporarily Occupied Territories

Winter is usually associated with Christmas lights, family warmth, and anticipation of the New Year. For Ukrainians, however, it remains a season marked by pain, loss, and constant anxiety. While much of the world celebrates and reflects on the passing year, Ukraine continues to live to the sound of air-raid sirens, missile strikes, and artillery shelling. russian aggression has turned the holiday season into yet another test of endurance.

East SOS is publishing testimonies of Ukrainians who witnessed war crimes committed by the russian military during the Christmas and New Year holidays. For security reasons, the names of all respondents have been changed. All witnesses have since managed to leave the occupation.

Since the temporary occupation of parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in 2014, civilians who were forced to remain in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine have endured ongoing shelling – even during holidays meant to bring peace and safety. Kateryna from the Luhansk region recalls the circumstances under which she had to celebrate Epiphany:

“It was January 2015 – I remember it clearly, it was Epiphany. We went to have the water blessed, and then a very heavy shelling began. After that, the active phase of hostilities started again.”

Despite the New Year’s holidays, the Russian military continues to terrorize Ukrainians who were forced to remain in the temporarily occupied territories. Nataliia, who lived under occupation in the Kherson region in 2023, recalls how the celebration turned into a night of fear:

“On New Year’s Eve, the russian soldiers were drinking alcohol. I heard one of them shouting behind the fence: ‘You have to blow the horn, you have to! I’m going to blow the horn!’ And then, oh my God, a machine gun. Around nine in the evening, he started shooting into our yard. My husband said, ‘I’ll go to the shed and see if the cattle were hit.’ I told him, ‘Don’t turn on the flashlight – they’ll shoot at you.’ He went and came back worried. We had a cow, a calf, and pigs. He said they were frightened, but all alive. We had dinner and went to bed, but at midnight we woke up because the russians had placed a large-caliber machine gun about two meters from our fence and began firing over the roof of our house. It went on until half past two in the morning. We lay flat on the ground, silent. We understood they were drunk and could start shooting at the house at any moment.”

For Viktoriia from the Luhansk region, the year 2015 began with shelling that destroyed her sense of safety forever:

“On January 1, on New Year’s Eve, a shell hit the building where I lived. It struck another entrance, but the house was damaged. I think I developed a certain resistance to fear back then. Still, even now, when I hear a loud crash, a delayed fear comes back.”

Volunteer and civic organizations continue to support their compatriots despite extremely difficult conditions and constant russian shelling. Volodymyr recalls the dedication of the Kharkiv volunteer community on New Year’s Eve in December 2022:

“At the end of December, just before the New Year, we were holding a small internal holiday gathering. Two streets away, a shell struck a building. We immediately went to provide first aid to the wounded.”

Even the Christmas holidays do not stop the cruelty of the occupiers. Mariia from the Zaporizhzhia region shared the story of her neighbor, who was killed by the russian military in 2023:

“After the New Year, around Christmas and Epiphany, my neighbor Maryna disappeared. Later, she was found murdered. The russian military abused and raped her. After Maryna’s death, the occupiers moved into her house.”

The documentation of war crimes by East SOS is carried out within the framework of the project “Support for War-Affected Vulnerable Groups and Residents of Remote Territories of Ukraine”, with the financial support of the European Union. The content is the sole responsibility of the foundation and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the EU Delegation to Ukraine.

Earlier, we shared stories about the daily violations of civilians’ rights committed by the occupiers.