The year that never ended: how a Ukrainian comedian rebuilt a stranger’s house

The Ukrainian comedian Vasyl Baidak sparks an unlikely and enduring friendship with retiree Iryna Terekhova when he joins a group of young people from Kyiv to rebuild her home.
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A devout Orthodox Christian, Terekhova lives in a farming village in the Chernihiv region, where her house was destroyed during the Russian occupation of March 2022. She reflects on a traumatic time when she was forced to share her cellar with Russian soldiers who said they had come to liberate her, but who devastated her village.

Refusing to leave the area where she has lived most of her life, Terekhova is galvanised by the entrepreneurial spirit of the young Kyiv builders, while Baidak proves that humour is the vital ingredient to bolster their collective spirit.

‘I wait for the war to end, that’s when our new year will begin. For now, 2022 still continues,’ concludes Iryna

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