Ukrainians visit wartime Christmas tree installed in downtown Kyiv

A Christmas tree was installed in downtown Kyiv on Saturday (December 17), after the latest wave of Russian air strikes on critical infrastructure, as residents navigated a city gripped by fog and girded for a holiday season marked by uncertainty.

The ‘Christmas tree of invincibility’, as Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko called it, was installed in a dark Sofiyska square.

The vast space in front of the centuries-old St. Sophia Cathedral is traditionally anchored by a hulking evergreen at Christmas. But officials this year opted for a 12-metre (40-foot) artificial tree festooned with energy-saving lights powered by a generator.