“When you bring up Ukraine, do you have friends who just don’t get it? This is the film series you need to share with them.”
AUG 24
AUGUST 24, 2025 – This Independence Day – Ukraine is Alive!
Putin Wants Ukrainians to Despair
Yes, he wants to murder them—obviously.
But his principal goal is to obliterate the Ukrainian spirit.
It is the great ambition of his life.
One of many things that Putin and Russia want to die is for people to give up. In all senses. To give up the fun. The life. To kill the endurance. Because that means they are going to be more controllable. So, this constant missile attacks on Kyiv is to kill our infrastructure. To kill people. But also to make people more tired and to stop the economy.” Kyiv of Mine, August 24, 2025
To achieve his goal, Putin has sacrificed a million Russians, wrecked his own economy, and secured his place as the foremost war criminal of our lifetime.
And yet, he has failed.
Ukraine is alive.
Her heart pounds like thunder.
Her breath is fire.
Her spirit is purified and holy from the baptism of war.
The world bet against her. She ignored it. With pebbles launched from a sling, she struck the head of a giant and emerged as the greatest underdog story of our generation.
Defiant. Confident. Beautiful.
The Story of the Ukrainian Spirit
“Ukraine deserves a better conversation. Our film is a love letter to this city, It celebrates the food, the culture, the innovation — and above all, the people of Kyiv.” Ronnie Apteker, producer, Kyiv of MIne
One team of filmmakers has spent eight years capturing this story.
They prepared for this moment—a time when politicians without solutions cloud the truth with the rhetoric of appeasement—so they could remind the world of one of the most hopeful forces for peace in the modern era: the Ukrainian spirit.
And today their three-part series, Kyiv of Mine, premieres worldwide.
It began when a group of tech nerds and friends fell in love with a city and wanted to share their romance with the world. In 2018 they found artists, entrepreneurs, chefs, and business owners who embodied the rising spirit of Kyiv and began to tell their aspirational stories.
As internationals living in Kyiv, the filmmakers saw how desperately Ukraine needed a better conversation. They were tired of Russian propaganda and crude stereotypes that reduced a vibrant culture to caricature. So they set out to bring that “better conversation” to the West through a multi-chapter film project: Kyiv of Mine.
What began as a lighthearted exploration of life in Kyiv soon became something deeper—soulful, even cathartic.
Who could have known their world was about to turn upside down? First, a global pandemic. Then, a horrifying war that subjected every subject of the film to profound loss and the daily terror of missile attacks.
But they kept filming. Again and again.
They captured the stories of the same Kyivans in real time as history unfolded.
This is not a typical documentary where people look back on events of the past. In Kyiv of Mine, we experience life as it happens, through the eyes of those living it.
The result is an uncommon journey—traveling with its subjects from Heaven to Hell and back again. Extraordinary, raw, and deeply human. Viewers don’t watch a re-creation or an archive-heavy documentary. They experience a living, breathing testimony to the indomitable spirit of Ukraine.
The team of filmmakers with Kyiv of Mine.
The filmmakers describe the series as “made with love” and are presenting it free of charge. The first three chapters of Kyiv of Mine release today, August 24, 2025, Independence Day.
WATCH KYIV OF MINE – CHAPTER 1 – THE UKRAINIAN DREAM
WATCH KYIV OF MINE – CHAPTER 2 – IT’LL BE OVER IN THREE DAYS
WATCH KYIV OF MINE – CHAPTER 3 – HOLDING ONTO THE SUMMER
The filmmakers intend to take the series through Ukraine’s over Russia, to rebuilding the nation, for a total of six episodes filmed over a decade or more.
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Take a break from the headlines. Immerse yourself in the human spirit at its most tested—and most triumphant.
Gather your friends and family for a cool bath of refreshing encouragement at a moment when the world needs it most.
DW Phillips is a filmmaker, a constitutional attorney, a journalist and director of Ukraine Story, a foundation for documentary journalism.
Wonderful!
Awesome!
The endorsement from Operator Starsky :
“Made with so much love.
This film series will make you laugh and cry.”
God bless Ukraine and God bless DW and his team.