Episode description

What's it like to fight for your country over the festive season, when the rest of the world is celebrating with their family and friends?

We hear from an officer who heads an artillery reconnaissance team about what last Christmas was like - and his hopes for this holiday.

And Chef Zhenya has set up a military kitchen in Zaporizhya that makes 68,000 meals a week for a military unit. He tells us how he does it - and what he’s putting on the menu to celebrate the end of 2023.

And the BBC’s Irena Taranyuk has been busy cooking kutia, the traditional Ukrainian Christmas dish, which Victoria gets to try for the first time.

Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and Vitaly Shevchenko. The programme was made by Clare Williamson. The producers were Arsenii Sokolov and Ivana Davidovic. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Lucy Boast. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480

You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord