Angels and ammo: conflict seeps into everything in north-eastern Ukraine, even a nativity play

"The ammunition boxes stacked on the stage opened up to reveal figurines of angels and an infant Jesus lying in his manger. Six actors sang plaintive carols, accompanied by readings of the brooding poetry of Kharkiv writer Serhiy Zhadan. The audience sat, transfixed by the almost unbearable intensity of the spectacle. The nativity play, performed on a recent evening at Kharkiv's puppet theatre, was a reminder that conflict has seeped into the fabric of almost everything in Ukrainian life over the past four years."

"We can't just put on comedies and escape from reality, said Oksana Dmitrieva, the nativity play's 48-year-old director. The stage is a mirror, and we have to live through our emotions again, but this time from outside ourselves, together with others, she said. Oksana Dmitrieva, the director of Nativity Scene. War. Poems., at the Kharkiv puppet theatre. She admitted, however, that dissecting the darker emotions on stage does not always translate to a lighter mind in real life."

"This winter, the fourth since Russia's full-scale invasion, threatens to be the bleakest yet for Ukraine. Trump, during his first year in office, has proved much more receptive to Moscow's talking points than to Kyiv's, Russian troops continue a slow but grinding advance in the Donbas region and missile attacks on energy infrastructure have left cities without power for hours on end, day after day."

A nativity play at Kharkiv's puppet theatre juxtaposed ammunition boxes and religious figurines, with six actors singing carols and readings of Serhiy Zhadan's brooding poetry, producing an intense spectacle. The production showed how conflict has seeped into almost every aspect of Ukrainian life over four years. The director, Oksana Dmitrieva, rejected escapist comedies and framed the stage as a mirror for communal emotional processing while acknowledging that performing darker emotions does not always ease real-life anxieties. The approaching fourth winter since Russia's full-scale invasion threatens deeper hardship, with political shifts, grinding frontline advances, attacks on energy infrastructure, budget strains, recruitment crises, and no plausible near-term positive outcome.

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