Ice fishing is a peaceful retreat for war-weary Ukrainians

0:01Today's State of the World takes us ice fishing in Ukraine on the city of Kyiv's Dnipro River.

0:10You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Tuesday, February 17th. I'm Christine Arismath. Ukraine's endured four years of war since Russia invaded in 2022. To cope, to survive, residents rely on favored pastimes, especially in winter. And in Kyiv, that might mean ice fishing on the frozen Dnepro River, Ukraine's longest. Despite Russian missile attacks and sub-zero temperatures, some Kiev residents venture out onto the ice for a peaceful winter respite from both the city and the war. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley joined them and brought this story.

0:56It's so amazing. We are in the middle of the Dnepro River in Kiev. We're walking on the water because it's frozen solid. And we're coming out to talk to some fishermen who've drilled holes in the ice. They're sitting on their little stools and fishing. Good morning. Hello.

1:19We're here to hang out and spend some time together more than anything else. I mean, we could buy fish in the grocery store, and with the sun today, it's actually warmer than being at home with no power. That's 51-year-old Serhii Chaus. Russia's strikes on Ukraine's energy grid have cut electricity and heat to great swaths of the city amidst a frigid winter. These friends live on the eastern left bank in Kiev that's been hit hardest by Russian drones and missiles. 62-year-old pensioner Volodymyr Karabinko points to three high-rises he said were recently hit by an Iranian Shahid drone. The Russians like to target this neighborhood, he tells me and NPR interpreter Polina Litvinova.

2:03You have to drag yourself out of bed in the night and go shelter in the hallway between protective walls, he says. But it's not so easy to take us, to conquer us.

2:24We won't surrender, we won't give up, at least without a fight.

2:31The fishermen drill through the foot-thick ice with a manual circular pole saw known as an ice auger. It looks kind of like a giant corkscrew.

2:44Frigid water gurgles up through the holes. Even though we're in the middle of the city by the giant bridge that links the right and left banks, it's like a silent white wilderness out on the frozen river. How can you not love Kiev, asks Mikola Shevchenko, gesturing up to a cluster of centuries-old churches on the right bank. Their gold onion domes gleam in the winter sun. You see the lady with the sword showing the Russians that we are here. He's talking about the giant Motherland statue that towers over the Dnipro, her sword and shield held high. After the full-scale invasion, the Soviet hammer and sickle on her shield were replaced with a Ukrainian trident.

3:31Pensioner Volodymyr Karabinko began fishing in the Dnipro when he moved to Kiev in 1986, the same year as the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster not far upstream on one of the Dnipro's tributaries. We drank cheap wine then because they told us it would help with radiation poisoning, he remembers. Of course it was a joke. There are songs and poems about the Dnipro, but the river is more than a national symbol. It provides power and water to the capital Kiev thanks to a massive reservoir just north of the city, fondly known as the Kiev Sea. These days, military defense units are perched on the reservoir dam 24-7 with guns trained at the sky.

4:17Shevchenko says he's been fishing here since he was a boy, but says many of his fishing buddies are now serving at the front or have been killed. Still, this father of three says he's sure Ukraine will prevail. But it's hard. The shelling last night was bad. And my children, who are school age, get really scared. So it's difficult at night. Oh, he got a little fish. He's so little. Chaus pulls a tiny carp from one of the holes. The fish flip-flops on the ice. He's originally from the southeastern city of Nikopol, not far from the Zaporizhian nuclear power plant now occupied by the Russians.

5:02Because of the damn Russians, I had to leave my home behind and move here. Though the front line is far away, the war comes every night with drone and missile attacks. For these fishermen, continuing to fish on the windswept ice of the Dnipro River is a way to resist. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, on the Dnipro River in Kyiv. And that's The State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.