{"id":495857,"date":"2025-10-13T10:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495857\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T10:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:04:11","slug":"ukraine-pauses-daily-at-9-am-to-honor-war-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495857\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine pauses daily at 9 am to honor war victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Each morning at 9 o\u2019clock, Kyiv stops for a minute.<\/p>\n

Traffic lights turn red, and the steady beat of a metronome on loudspeakers signals 60 seconds of reflection. Cars idle in the middle of the street as drivers step out and stand with heads bowed.<\/p>\n

Across Ukraine<\/a> \u2014 in cafes, gyms, schools, on television and even on the front lines \u2014 people pause to remember those killed in Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n

Near a growing outdoor memorial at Kyiv\u2019s Maidan Square, four friends gathered with cardboard signs that read, \u201cStop. Honor.\u201d Around them, flags, photos and candles for fallen service members formed a dense mosaic of grief and pride.<\/p>\n

The four are connected by Iryna Tsybukh<\/a>, a 25-year-old combat medic killed by a landmine in eastern Ukraine last year. Her death sparked a national outpouring of grief and added momentum to the daily remembrance initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cMemory is not about death,\u201d said Kateryna Datsenko, a friend of the fallen medic and co-founder of Vshanuy, a civic group that promotes the daily observance. \u201cIt\u2019s about life \u2014 what people loved, valued and thought about. Someone might have loved gardening, someone else a favorite poem. This is the kind of memory we try to preserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 9 a.m. ritual began in 2022, weeks after the invasion started<\/a>, as a presidential decree from Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a>. It has since evolved into a shared national practice.<\/p>\n

Public demonstrations of solidarity continue even as Russian missile and drone attacks<\/a> have intensified in recent weeks, striking power facilities and cities across the country. Despite the escalation, Ukrainians still gather each morning to honor those lost in the war.<\/p>\n

Ihor Reva, deputy head of Kyiv\u2019s military administration, said the ritual fulfills a deep social and personal need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis war has a price, and that price is terrible \u2014 human lives,\u201d he said. \u201cYou disconnect from everyday thoughts and simply devote that minute to remembrance. That\u2019s what I\u2019d call it \u2014 a mindful keeping of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

City officials have recently synchronized Kyiv\u2019s traffic lights to turn red at 9 a.m., ensuring the capital joins the nationwide pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetter late than never,\u201d Reva said. \u201cWe definitely won\u2019t stop there.\u201d<\/p>\n

For activist and campaign supporter Daria Kolomiec, the moment feels both collective and personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day we wake up \u2014 sometimes barely sleeping because of attacks \u2014 but every morning at 9 a.m. we gather to remember why we\u2019re still here, and for whom we need to be thankful,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re not alone in this grief. There\u2019s energy between us in that moment.\u201d ___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Each morning at 9 o\u2019clock, Kyiv stops for a minute. Traffic lights turn red,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[163167,4179,10546,82846,285,332,7661,657,7662,2601,7660,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-495857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-daria-kolomiec","9":"tag-general-news","10":"tag-kyiv","11":"tag-military-occupations","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-russia","14":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","15":"tag-ukraine","16":"tag-ukraine-government","17":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","18":"tag-war-and-unrest","19":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115366295361958259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}