SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
It's winter in Ukraine, and in Kyiv, the river that winds through the heart of the city is frozen. That's the Dnipro River, Ukraine's longest, a vital waterway for both transport and hydroelectric power. Though in its current state, as the war enters its fifth year, it is also the ideal setting for a favorite pastime, ice fishing. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: It's so amazing we are in the middle of the Dnipro River in Kyiv.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS ON ICE)
BEARDSLEY: And we're walking on the water because it's frozen solid. And we're coming out to talk to some fishermen who have drilled holes in the ice. They're sitting on their little stools and fishing. (Speaking Ukrainian). Hello.
SERHI CHAUS: (Through interpreter) We'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.
BEARDSLEY: That's 51-year-old Serhi 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 Kyiv that's been hit hardest by Russian drones and missiles.
VOLODYMIR KARABENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: Sixty-two-year-old pensioner Volodymir Karabenko points to three high-rises he said were recently hit by an Iranian Shahed drone. "The Russians like to target this neighborhood," he tells me and NPR interpreter Polina Lytvynova.
KARABENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: "You have to drag yourself out of bed in the night and go shelter in the hallway between protective walls," he says.
KARABENKO: (Through interpreter) But it's not so easy to take us, to conquer us. We won't surrender. We won't give up, at least without a fight.
(SOUNDBITE OF ICE AUGER DRILLING)
BEARDSLEY: The 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER GURGLING)
BEARDSLEY: Frigid 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.
MYKOLA SHEVCHENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: "How can you not love Kyiv," asks Mykola Shevchenko, gesturing up to a cluster of centuries-old churches on the right bank. Their gold onion domes gleam in the winter sun.
SHEVCHENKO: (Through interpreter) You see the lady with a sword showing the Russians that we are here (laughter).
BEARDSLEY: 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. Pensioner Volodymir Karabenko began fishing in the Dnipro when he moved to Kyiv in 1986, the same year as the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster not far upstream on one of the Dnipro's tributaries.
KARABENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: "We drank cheap wine then 'cause 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, Kyiv, thanks to a massive reservoir just north of the city, fondly known as the Kyiv Sea. These days, military defense units are perched on the reservoir dam 24/7 with guns trained at the sky.
SHEVCHENKO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
BEARDSLEY: Shevchenko 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.
SHEVCHENKO: (Through interpreter) 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.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS ON ICE)
BEARDSLEY: 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 Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant now occupied by the Russians.
CHAUS: (Through interpreter) Because of the d*** Russians, I had to leave my home behind and move here.
BEARDSLEY: 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. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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