Ukraine's Frontline Chef Reveals What He'll Feed Soldiers At Christmas

A Ukrainian chef has lifted the lid on the challenges of serving food to the country's special forces as the war against Russia looks set to continue over Christmas.

This Christmas, millions of families across America will gather together to enjoy meals featuring all the familiar festive accompaniments.

But thousands of miles away in Ukraine, the holiday season looks very different. By the time most Americans are carving their turkey on December 25, it will have been 304 days since Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

While many in the U.S. will celebrate Christmas in the warmth and comfort of their homes, Ukrainians will fight to defend the very country they call their home.

Even in normal times, Christmas would be different in Ukraine. A significant proportion of the country's population follows the teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the world's second largest Christian church.

From late November, a 40-day fast begins during which time believers abstain from eating products of animal origin while also refraining from entertainment, profanity, drinking alcohol and smoking.

In wartime those traditions represent a challenge, particularly when it comes to keeping those soldiers defending Ukraine's frontline well-fed. But Chef Ievgen Mykhailenko is more than up to the task.

From Kyiv to L.A.

Originally from Kyiv, Mykhailenko, who serves the troops food and tweets under the moniker Chef Zhenya, has been a professional chef for 20 years. "I learned a lot about cooking from the summer I spent on a farm," he told Newsweek. "I killed my first chicken when I was eight."

Eager to forge a career in the culinary world, Mykhailenko headed to the U.S. and initially enrolled in a college course in L.A. before dropping out to gain more practical experience working in the city's bustling restaurant scene.

But Ukraine was never far from his thoughts and in February 2014 he returned home to participate in the Ukrainian Revolution that saw President Viktor Yanukovych ousted following widespread protests and clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Kyiv.

It was an event often identified as leading to the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War. It also signaled the start of a new chapter for Mykhailenko who opened a restaurant in his homeland. CEO and head chef, he also owns six Ramen shops in the Ukraine capital.

Russia's invasion earlier this year prompted Mykhailenko to take on a new role as volunteer chef feeding Ukraine's special forces soldiers. As a self-declared participant in the previous revolutions witnessed in the country, Mykhailenko was eager to do his part to help.

"A lot of my friends are in the military," he said. "I spent two years working as part of a veteran rehabilitation program, helping ex-soldiers reintegrate back into society and, specifically, pursue cooking careers."

What Do Ukrainian Soldiers Eat?

Mykhailenko now splits his time between managing a volunteer kitchen for the special forces in Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv, switching between the two.

Ensuring the troops under his care get the right balance of nutrients in their food is crucial to Mykhailenko's work. Fortunately, his previous experience makes him perfectly placed to do that.

"When I was in the States I was trying to get into the United States Navy and passed all kinds of tests and learned a lot about cooking," he said. "I researched what was the best food to eat and since then I have engaged with different veterans on Twitter who offered advice and read books and nutrition guides specifically developed by the Army Special Forces."

Ultimately though, he admits much of his work is about trying to "make the best out of what we've got." "The Special Forces were never set up to work in war conditions," he said. "They never had any kind of government budget to have three meals a day or staff working 24/7 so we rely on donations in terms of money but also food given to us by farmers and retail chains."

"There's no lobster or rack of lambs, we just try to make the best of what we have got," he said. "Sometimes we have to be really creative on a tight budget."

Even so, Mykhailenko admits there are times when he has to "pace" his creativity in terms of what he serves to ensure everyone is kept happy. "Some of these guys have trained around the world but most are very low key Ukrainian people," he explains. "Like the other day I served hummus and couscous and maybe 70 percent of them had never had it before."

It's hard work with days sometimes lasting from 6 A.M. to 10 P.M. It was even harder at the start when volunteers were few and far between. At times, when assisting the army in Kyiv, Mykhailenko said he was helping make 1,500 meals, three times a day. Thankfully now he has a growing team behind him and he can see the effect his food is having on the soldiers.

"Military base food hadn't changed since the USSR and I feel like people wanted change. They wanted better food," he said. "It's made people excited about every meal."

Will Ukraine Get a Christmas Dinner This Year?

Yet while his efforts have raised morale, the conflict is never far away from Mykhailenko's mind and he's even been "pretty close" to the frontline itself.

"Once I was delivering food to some soldiers and had to sit in a dugout for a couple of hours during an artillery attack," he said. Despite this, he remains determined to deliver a "traditional Christmas meal" for the soldiers he serves

"We'll have Borscht (a type of soup) made with fish broth, and also fish with lots of different vegetables during the fast," he said. "Then before Easter we have the feast when everybody just eats everything—everything with fat."

This may not be the last time he's called to feed the troops at Christmas either, with Mykhailenko seeing no end in sight to the war.

"This war is gonna go for many, many years. in one shape or another," he said. "It might not be an open conflict but Russia has opened Pandora's box and now they're gonna see what was inside."