War in 2025 didn’t slow down. It has shape-shifted.
These 12 articles are Ukrainska Pravda’s attempt to pin down a year that refuses to sit still. They take you from underground metro “bedrooms” to high-tech drone command posts, from microwave weapons and strategic bombers to kindergarten teachers shooting down missiles.
You’ll meet children forced into uniforms, priests trading faith for espionage, soldiers who survived hell and are still learning how to live again, and an eight-year-old gymnast who decided that losing a leg was not the end of her story.
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This isn’t a highlight of the year. It’s a reality check. A record of how the war reaches into families, classrooms, churches, cockpits, and kitchens – and how Ukrainians keep adapting, resisting, and refusing to disappear.
Read them carefully.
Olha in her mobile dental unit
Photo: Alina Andrieieva for the Khartiia Brigade
A mother and daughter serving together in the Khartiia Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard talk about their family history, everyday life in the army, and bringing up children free of gender stereotypes.
Collage: Andrii Kalistratenko, Ukrainska Pravda
The world is perfecting prototypes of microwave weapons to use them in combat. Will such weapons be useful in the Russo-Ukrainian war?
On the night of the attack, Ostap had been lying with his head against the wall, but he turned around and put his feet there. This saved his life
Photo: Suspilne. Donbas
Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia spoke with two Azov fighters, aliases Ostapchyk and Matros, about their memories of the most terrifying night of their lives, their fallen brothers-in-arms, and life after returning home. What follows is their story, told in their own words.
Collage: Andrii Kalistratenko, Ukrainska Pravda
A story about 14 teachers who work in an educational institution that the Russians established on the basis of a former Ukrainian lyceum, where teenagers are taught Russian history, trained for service in the Russian army, and taught how to operate UAVs and load weapons.
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Collage: Andrii Kalistratenko, Ukrainska Pravda
Ukraine’s Security Service says 41 aircraft worth US$7 billion were struck in the operation. Will Russia be able to rebuild its lost aircraft?Oboronka has analysed which Russian aircraft have been hit since the onset of the full-scale war, their significance on the battlefield, how many remain in reserve, and whether Russia still has the capacity to repair, upgrade and build new strategic warplanes.
Collage: Andrii Kalistratenko, Ukrainska Pravda
Inside the command post of the 412th Nemesis Regiment, the future of warfare feels both real and surreal. Ground crews deploy drones to the line of contact, while pilots thousands of kilometres away control them. They may never meet in person, yet they fight side by side every day.
Collage: Andrii Kalistratenko, Ukrainska Pravda
How a kindergarten teacher became an anti-aircraft gunner, how difficult it is to shoot down a missile flying at breakneck speed, what a person loses and gains when they join the army – these are the stories that Nataliia Hrabarchuk, a soldier of the Ukrainian Air Force, told Ukrainska Pravda.
Oleksandra Paskal, a young Ukrainian gymnast, had her left leg amputated after suffering severe injuries in a Russian missile attack. Yet this tragedy has not broken her spirit. Today she performs all her gymnastics routines on a prosthetic leg, keeping pace with the other athletes on her team.
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Collage: Andrii Kalistratenko, Ukrainska Pravda
The Russo-Ukrainian war has created a special category of people – “nighttime metro residents”. These people aren’t hippies and they aren’t homeless. They’re ordinary citizens. Just their anxiety levels are higher than most people’s.
Collage: Andrii Kalistratenko, Ukrainska Pravda
An investigation into how parts of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate became a quiet pipeline for Russian influence – mixing faith, espionage, and propaganda. Holy robes, very unholy agendas.
Collage: Andrii Kalistratenko, Ukrainska Pravda
On 26 November, former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolaienko was honoured as one of one hundred winners at the third annual UP100 Awards. After receiving his award, he stepped onto the stage with a speech he had written on the train from his native Kherson to Kyiv. Here is that speech in full.
