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I love life, always have To me living is not about the latest smartphone, big screen TV or fancy car, it’s about people. Wherever I go I love meeting new folks. Many think I’m crazy for staying in Kyiv during wartime, but the reason is the truly amazing people. Ukrainians are some of the best people on earth, and the day-to-day resolve they show on the battlefield, and on the streets of Kyiv is nothing short of inspiring.

Occasionally however, a people person like me encounters someone who’s not only a good soul, but a perfect fit for what I’m up to at the time – and exactly when I need them. A friend of mine calls this type of chance meeting serendipity, but I also think of it as good karma. I believe that if you exude positive energy, the world will present you with good things and it’s often by way of serendipity.

Surplus serendipity

I was recently in Switzerland attending the Basel Peace Forum where I met some fantastic people. Academics, lawyers, diplomats, journalists and humanitarians from all over the world got together for two days to discuss the effect borders have on peace. Serendipitously, I met a cool young entrepreneur who’s building next generation bicycle paths and bridges from engineered wood, complete with solar panels. This fits perfectly within our ReBuild Ukraine urban planning process. 

After leaving Basel, I headed to Berlin for one night and went to the restaurant recommended by a friendly Berliner I met at my Kyiv hotel a few weeks earlier. While sitting at the bar in the schnitzel restaurant, I struck up a conversation with the gentleman on my left, Toni. Talk eventually turned to Ukraine and the fact that I’ve been living in Kyiv for the past six months. Turns out that Toni is a producer who did a booming business filming commercials in Kyiv before the war and he had the pictures to prove it.

I then chatted with the couple on my right, Alex and Meike. Alex runs a humanitarian software company using technology to increase the logistical efficiency of food donation for the hungry and displaced. Meike is an archaeologist and art historian who specializes in recovering precious cultural items that have been looted during wartime. It’s not just washing machines and TVs that Russian troops are stealing from homes across the country. They’re also removing art and icons from churches and destroying statues in public squares. 

Are all these encounters coincidental or karma?

Just when I thought I was out…

I was nearing the Ukrainian border at Przemyśl, Poland late on Sunday night and was sure my serendipity had taken a well-deserved nap. All the restaurants and stores were closed, except one pizza joint. I sat down beside a group of Dutch students and eventually asked why they’re at the border. Incredibly, they’ve established a volunteer group to collect support from the Netherlands and deliver to Ukraine.

As part of The Peace Coalition’s efforts we receive many requests for different types of aid, so now we have a group in Holland to act as an intermediary to source and deliver anything we need for Ukrainians. Talk about good karma, or was it just a coincidence?

A few months ago I met a Aussie in an Amsterdam cafe and we had a great chat about almost everything. We solved climate change, eliminated poverty and debated who’d win the Champion League this season. After an hour of talking, my friend got up to leave, shook my hand and said, “Thank you for sharing some of your life with me.” I was gobsmacked by the beauty of such simple parting words, but realized I’d never have heard it if I hadn’t been as open to sharing my life as he was of his.

Serendipity is definitely real and a delightful surprise, but it’s not coincidence. If you’re open to meeting great people, serendipity is guaranteed.

Life in Kyiv is often remarkably normal for a country at war with a superpower. Restaurants of every type abound and the grocery store shelves are full. Don’t get me wrong, wartime is not without its risks and inconveniences, but Kyiv is still bustling.

Air raid sirens sound several times a day causing many to shelter in basements or the metro transit system. Occasionally a missile pierces Ukrainian air defences, hitting random targets like parks, hotels and energy facilities. We’ve come to realize that Russians are not known for their compassion nor ballistic accuracy.

Fare or no fair

The Kyiv metro is pretty good although it doesn’t service the entire city and is especially limited in reaching the left bank of the Dnipro where many live. In fact, getting home after a night out has become quite a challenge for many Kyivans.

Since the illegal Russian invasion, the city’s been under a nightly wartime curfew. Everyone is required to be at home by 11pm, and anyone caught walking after curfew risks being fined by the police, or forced to do 200 push-ups as penance.

Uber to the rescue

Thankfully, Ukrainians are resourceful and very technologically savvy. If you miss the last metro train at 10 pm, you have three options: Uber, Bolt and Uklon. Nearly every citizen has a smartphone loaded with Uber and its Estonian and Ukrainian counterpart ridesharing apps. In fact, I’ve noticed a fascinating ritual every night.

To enable staff to get home before curfew, restaurants and bars announce last call between 9:00 and 9:30 with doors closing and lights out at 10 pm sharp. Tardy patrons become stranded on the street and this is when the ridesharing ritual begins.

All over Kyiv revellers crowd the sidewalks outside of restaurants and speakeasys with eyes glued to their smartphones as they play rideshare bingo. Everyone opens all three apps to compare prices for a ride home. With such demand, Uklon even has a feature to increase the price you’re willing to pay for a ride.

Late night Taxi Tango

People swipe back and forth between the apps hoping to get lucky. If you hit the jackpot, you must quickly cancel your other two requests so someone else a chance to yell bingo too.

Since it’s so busy, driving people home is a way for regular car owners to make some money in a pseudo transportation black market. A few weeks ago I had a late dinner in a funky Kyiv neighbourhood called Arsenal’na, an old factory complex transformed into restaurants, bars and hookah lounges.

After dinner we played rideshare bingo for 30 minutes with no luck but we had another option, the black market. The rideshare pick up zone in front of Arsenal’na was a continuous line of private vehicles inching forward just waiting for someone to knock on the window to negotiate a price for a ride.

Like most black market transactions however, the price was exorbitant. But for a Canadian in Kyiv the typical $5 fare increased to $25 for a 30-minute ride. No issue for me, but for many young Ukrainians, $25 is a full day’s wages. That’s why winning the rideshare bingo is a significant jackpot!

Most who celebrate Christmas do so on December 25th because that’s when Christ was born according to the Gregorian calendar. Pope Gregory XIII adopted his namesake calendar in 1582 to correct an error in the Julian calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC. The Romans had miscalculated the solar year by a few minutes and over the next 1500 years, their calendar was off by thirteen days.

What day is it anyway?

What does all of this have to do with Christmas today you might ask? Well, when Pope Gregory changed the calendar he did so for only the western, or Roman Catholics. Eastern, or Orthodox Catholics had a different leader. Patriarch Jeremias II oversaw the Catholic church in Constantinople, modern day Istanbul which had been the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire since 330 AD.

Patriarch Jeremias had no interest in following his competitor in Rome, so to this day Orthodox Catholics still follow the Julian calendar which remains 13 days out of sync. Christmas day for Orthodox Catholics is celebrated on January 7th, and New Year’s on January 13th. 

Christmas, then another Christmas

Ukraine is a primarily an Orthodox country so for centuries Ukrainians have celebrated Christmas on January 7th just like their larger cousin to the East, the Russian Orthodox church. Heck, my Ukrainian family back in Canada are Orthodox and they’ve always celebrated Christmas on January 7th. The Christmas season is very special for any mixed-Ukrainian family because you’d celebrate Christmas on December 25th, and then again on January 7th, with a festive dinner and often another round of presents.

However, Russian language, music and television are no longer popular or acceptable in Ukraine since the Donbas invasion of 2014, and even less so since the full-scale invasion of February 24, 2022. For years Ukrainians have been distancing themselves from Russia, and the date to celebrate Christmas is just another way to cut the cord.

Cutting the ties that bind

On December 30, 2022, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy conducted a survey of Ukrainians through their national digital identity app, Diia. 1.5 million people took the survey and a resounding 60% voted to celebrate Christmas each December 25th, further distancing themselves from anything associated with Russia.

When to celebrate may seem like a silly thing to consider during wartime, but when death & destruction have become everyday life for so many Ukrainians, even the little decisions count. Moving Christmas is another rejection of Russian power and influence, and an indication of just how strongly the Ukrainian people would rather be associated with Western Europe.

Just as the three wise men followed a star to guide them to Bethlehem and baby Jesus, over 2000 years later, the people of Ukraine are looking for a star to guide them into the welcoming arms of Europe. Well, it’s more likely a HIMARS rocket that the Ukrainians are following, but anything that illumintes the black, Russian-controlled sky is a wonderful and hopeful sight to the brave people of Ukraine.

It’s not easy traveling to Ukraine during wartime with multiple flights and a 24-hour train ride from Warsaw, but it’s certainly an adventure. You’ll find that Kyiv has every modern conveniece like ride-sharing, food delivery and digital government services. However, it also has daily air raid sirens, and deadly missile & drone attacks courtesy the Russian Federation. Most people speak English, restaurants are full and the bars make awesome cocktails, but a little anxiety is always palpable.

Season 5 is all about Ukraine and its brave people so if you want to stay informed, listen to The Decentralists. Mike’s now been living in Kyiv for nearly six months. 

What’s life really like in a war zone? Have a listen and find out.

If there’s one thing that’s constanty amazed me over the six months I’ve lived in Kyiv during wartime, it’s the spirit and resilience of the Ukrainian people. And there’s one group that really highlights that spirit: the ubiquitous Glovo food delivery people.

It may sound a bit weird to think of a bunch of food delivery drivers, riders and walkers as the epitome of tenacity and perseverance, but let me explain.

Techno a glo-vo

When it comes to technology like ridesharing, food delivery, banking and digital identity, Ukraine is significantly more advanced society than most of the world. There are three major ride-sharing companies operating in Kyiv so anytime anyone needs to get somewhere quickly, they can flip between Uber, Uklon and Bolt to see which one is nearest or cheaper.

Convenient technology is everywhere in everyday life, but it’s the food delivery folks that take the cake. You can’t walk anywhere in Kyiv without dodging a car, bike or scooter sporting a big yellow Glovo backpack. Rain or shine, blizzard or heatwave, brilliant nightlife or blackout, you can always get a pizza or burger delivered right to your door.

To the bunker? Nah…

The Ukrainian twist on this occurred October 10, 2022, the first day since my arrival in Kyiv that Russian missiles penetrated the city centre. I was awoken by air raid sirens early that morning. I thought it was just another annoying warning, but when I got to the lobby I knew something was different. The folks at the front desk were nervous and asked me to get to the bunker asap because rockets were actually hitting the city.

Instead, just as I do everyday I had a cappuccino at my regular table in the hotel courtyard. Anti-aircraft fire and explosions could be heard in the distance and both staff and guests were uneasy. Rather than huddle in the hotel basement bunker, which is actually pretty nice, we all decided to drink wine and celebrate ‘armageddon’ together.

Fight for your right to pizza!

Later that day the entire city was plunged into total darkness for the first time. I was on the rooftop deck with my new friends in the pitch dark trying to survey the damage, but we couldn’t see a thing. Around midnight, still in total darkness I decided to go inside. I open the door and what do I find? Six pizzas! 

“Where the heck did the these come from?” I exclaimed incredulously. “We ordered from Glovo” was the simple explanation. 

“Wait a second” I stammered. “Are you saying that at midnight during the first direct missile strikes in Kyiv for months, in the pitch dark with no power or streetlights, you ordered pizza, and someone actually rode over here with six?” 

“Sure, everyone’s gotta make money to survive” he said.

I’m from Vancouver where the slightest dusting of snow paralyses the entire city. Yet here’s some food-delivery guy out hustling on his bicycle in total darkness, at midnight in the middle of a war zone. And don’t forget the chef at the generator-powered restaurant that made the pizza!

If that doesn’t make you blush in awe, it should, and if it doesn’t convince you why the Ukrainian people deserve our support then you might want to look in the mirror because you might not be human.

Now that most of us have put Christmas in the rear-view mirror, it’s the season when most people think about the future. A new year is rapidly approaching, and we’ll likely make resolutions intended to put us on a better path for 2023. 

Many may wish to read more, get back to the gym and eat healthier food at home more often.

In Ukraine however, things like celebrating Christmas and planning for a bright future in the New Year are far from most people’s minds. The only resolution being made by Ukrainians for 2023 is for victory and pushing the Russians out of the country, once and for all.

Resolve or resolution

The Ukrainian resolve for defeating Russia is absolute. They actually moved Christmas to December 25th instead of January 7th, the usual day to celebrate in the predominantly Orthodox country. Why? To further break ties with Russia, also mostly Orthodox.

The Russian language, spoken by a large number of Ukrainians, is now considered distasteful and unacceptable. Restaurant servers and Uber drivers often ignore those speaking Russian. 

A future worth fighting for 

This is hardly surprising considering the daily missile and drone attacks on critical infrastructure and civilians in cities across the country. Barbaric attempts to break the will of the people are only making Ukrainians even more committed to the defeat of Russia in 2023.

As we approach a new year, the Ukrainian people face the same old problems of power outages, water shortages and no heat. The war is still being fought in the Donbas region and soon Crimea, and many more will die on both sides. Christmas was not something to celebrate this year, but the dawn of a New Year will be different. 

The free world heads toward 2023 in lockstep with Ukraine and united in defiance of Russian aggression. Ukrainians will continue to fight for their right to celebrate holidays with light, water, heat and freedom just like the rest of us enjoy. For 2023 we should all resolve to support the brave people of Ukraine as much as possible and for as long as it takes to defeat this illegal and unjustified Russian invasion, once and for all.

I’ve been in Kyiv since early August and nearly every day there’s been at least one air raid notice. Despite the sirens, most people don’t run for shelter, they simply wait for the raid to end and then get back to their daily routine. However, this all changed the morning of October 10th when a barrage of Russian missiles eluded Ukrainian air defences and rained death and destruction in central Kyiv.

Since then, air raids have destroyed key utilities infrastructure, especially electrical, in cities and towns across Ukraine. Since October 10th, the hum of Iranian-Russian drones is always followed by the hum of gas-powered generators. 

I never really thought of darkness as having a sound, but in Ukraine it certainly does.

Poor sports

The Russian military has been on its back foot for months as the Ukrainians push towards the border in the east and Crimea in the south. Rather than accept they are facing a superior enemy in the Ukrainian people who are literally fighting for their survival, the Russians are poor sports, lashing out at civilian targets that can’t fight back.

By no means is war a childish game, but it does have codified rules that are to followed by professional soldiers engaging in armed conflict. Civilians are not participants in war. Indeed, they have no choice in the matter so targeting them deliberately is a war crime. The same goes for targeting civilian infrastructure, like destroying a power plant so that innocent people freeze in the dark. It’s no different than simply shooting them.

Guilty as charged

As the Russian army’s petulance at being beaten grows with every battlefield defeat, so does the list of war crimes they commit. Article 2 of the Geneva Convention lists 50 specific crimes that all civilized nations agree not to commit during times of war. I challenge anyone to find even one of these 50 crimes the Russian army has not committed. It’s an astounding testament to brutality and the complete disregard for established rules of the civilized world.

Russia must be stopped now, and they must be forced to pay for all the damage they have wrought. Most of the war crimes committed by Russia can never be adequately compensated, but the constant hum of generators around Ukraine reminds us that many of them can.

It’s been three months since we last released an episode of The Decentralists and for that we apologise. However, we have a pretty good excuse. Mike went to Kyiv for two weeks in early August on a mission for our non-profit, The Peer Social Foundation. He’s still there – deeply involved in planning the country’s recovery with the brave people of Ukraine. 

What the heck are the Decentralists doing in Ukraine? How do you even get there? What’s life really like in a war zone?

Please have a listen – there’s much more to come…

After being here for nearly five months, I must say that Ukraine is an absolutely wonderful country. However, because it’s a former Soviet satellite state, a major issue still exists. Corruption is a big problem at all levels of society, especially in the public procurement and construction sector. Needless to say, this doesn’t bode well for a country that will undergo the largest rebuilding effort on the planet once the war is over.

Beware the Baksheesh

Repairing the destruction caused by Russia could take decades and will likely cost over a trillion dollars. This has builders, government procurement officials and local permitting authorities salivating at the prospect of raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes. Skimming 30% from a construction contract is not unusual in Ukraine so for that reason, total transparency will be absolutely necessary.

Since western governments and donors are already worried about corruption, they are limiting their investment until a secure and transparent method exists to ensure the integrity of the funding process. 

Ukraine’s procurement platform PROZORRO allows free and open access to the allocation of money spent on large government infrastructure projects like roads, bridges and railway lines. It’s a good start but unfortunately, PROZORRO only tracks project spending after it has been approved. Pre-approval is a major vector for corruption so the current design effectively bakes in a margin for bribery.

Transparency 

Therefore, we at the Peace Coalition are focusing on transparency during the entire process. From claims to construction, our pilot rebuilding project of Andriivka and Kozarovychi will be closely monitored. To start, we removed local government authorities from the loop by obtaining letters of cooperation and approval, including required permits, from the regional authorities. This pre-approval has assured that we will not be squeezed for illicit cash bribes by potentially corrupt officials in any of the 80 villages in the Dymer and Makarov regions.

Next, we distilled the rebuilding process down to 26 categories. From demolition to plumbing to finishing, we identified five different suppliers for each. Once damage estimates are completed and we’ve determined how many refrigerators or roofing tiles required, we will procure everything in bulk through an open-tender process, encouraging our suppliers to compete and deliver the best products at the best price.

To further ensure transparency, we’ve engaged a former procurement official from Energoatom, the Ukrainian nuclear power company. Mikhail established an open procurement platform of his own design to manage the construction of reactors at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant, currently illegally occupied by Russia. He did such a great job keeping the process on-time, on-budget and corruption free, that he lost his job since his bosses couldn’t accept their usual bribes.

I claim, you claim, one claim, two claims

It’s not just the suppliers and local officials who need to be monitored, victims of Russian aggression whose homes have been damaged or destroyed also need to be encouraged not to try to game the system. To ensure someone doesn’t double-dip by claiming twice for the same damage, all claimants will sign over their right to claim for property damage to the donors who fund the pilot projects, and share the claim details with the Ukrainian government’s international damage registry.

Digital currency to the rescue

To facilitate the rebuilding process, a great deal of money will need to move into and around Ukraine. Claimants will need to pay builders, service providers will need to deliver what they promise, and taxes need to be paid. To do all this as transparently as possible we propose an innovative new digital currency, the ReBuild Hryvnia, as the means of settling claims and paying suppliers. Claims will be paid to victims in ReBuild Hryvnia, which will be backed by matching donor funds held in a bank outside Ukraine. 

Builders and suppliers who agree to an open and auditable process will be eligible to register to accept ReBuild Hryvnia, and exchange them for ‘real’ fiat Hryvnia at approved local banks. There, value added taxes will be collected and transferred to Ukrainian government coffers. 

Should anyone attempt to cheat the system, their approval to transact in ReBuild Hryvnia can be suspended or cancelled, denying them the opportunity to profit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.

We believe our pilot project will result in the rebuilding of a new Ukraine quickly and corruption free. If successful, it will illustrate how the reconstruction can be done across the entire country, and assure western donors that they are building a new Ukraine, not bribing the old one.

After four months in Kyiv our plans are really starting to come together. My colleagues and I have progressed from the theoretical to the practical – from providing ideas & guidance to planning the reconstruction of villages. My time has been spent wrangling meetings with local and federal government officials and assembling the best team in Ukraine to not only rebuild Andriivka and Kozarovychi, but to rebuild them better. 

This terrible war has destroyed lives and buildings, however with adversity often comes opportunity. Now’s the time to carefully plan the resurrection of Ukraine by rebuilding towns with modern vision and technology. 

There’s no place like home

Soviet-era buildings in Ukraine are notoriously drafty and inefficient, usually made with very little insulation. The average Ukrainian home is 80 square metres (861 sq.ft.), and uses 100 kWh of energy per square metre per month, or 96,000 kWh per year. For context, the average energy consumption of a four-person German household is less than 8000 kWh per year.

There are many reasons for the inefficiency of homes in Ukraine. Corruption and theft in the construction sector is rampant as builders scrimp on insulation and quality windows to make a few extra bucks. Another is the Soviet-era infrastructure. With virtually unlimited access to centralized heating and water provided by a vast network of underground pipes that crisscross the nation, conservation has never been top-of-mind for citizens.

However, thanks to Russia many of those pipes are now destroyed. Water and heat are very scarce. Focusing on efficiency and sustainability is vitally important for the reconstruction of Ukraine as echoed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently in the Guardian.

Build back better

Ukraine must break the old Soviet habit of building homes and apartments to the minimum standards necessary to house its people. The daily attacks on the centralized energy and water system have proven that they must be reimagined as well.

From adversity comes opportunity

The massive scale of rebuilding in Ukraine will take decades so it needs to begin now. That’s why we are paying particular attention to Andriivka and Kozarovychi. We are designing plans for rehabilitated villages with new energy efficient homes, schools and businesses. Old houses that require new roofs and windows will receive insulation upgrades to improve their efficiency.

All the centralized asbestos water pipes from destroyed treatment plants will be replaced with new piping to local wells and modern plants. Heat and electricity from centralized Soviet facilities will give way to heat pumps, solar panels and battery storage. We will create homes and villages that we’d be proud to live in, because that’s what Ukrainians deserve, and it’s the right thing to do.

Rebuilding Ukraine to modern standards of energy efficiency and sustainability is a necessity for the nation to recover its productivity as quickly as possible. The remnants of Soviet-era centralized control must be cast aside so Ukraine can renew not only its infrastructure, but also its democracy for which they are fighting so bravely.