Russia incinerates birthplace of famous Christmas song

While the world sings the iconic ‘Carol of the Bells,’ this holiday tune’s birthplace is slowly being erased by Russia. Oleksandr, a priest, witnessed the destruction firsthand.

“[The enemy] is destroying the home where such a great song was created that inspires everyone…Yes, it was born in Pokrovsk,” priest Oleksandr Soldatenko said of one of the world’s most well-known Christmas carols.

The birthplace of that song, he said, is now “soaked in blood.” You will likely remember this tune:

Video: YouTube/Libera Official

A few years ago, Oleksandr remembered Pokrovsk as a city where ‘Shchedryk’ echoed through the streets — the Ukrainian song the world knows as ‘Carol of the Bells.’

Today, as the world hums a familiar melody, the city is silent except for the sound of explosions.

Priest Oleksandr Soldatenko. Photo provided by him to The Counteroffensive.

For nearly one and a half years, Pokrovsk, a key logistical hub in the Donetsk region and the birthplace of the famous carol, has been in the middle of one of the fiercest battles on the front lines. Russians have surrounded it from three sides, infiltrating the city center and capturing it district by district.

Life there has become unbearable: the gas supply has been cut off, and houses, if they have not already been destroyed, are left without electricity and water, forcing thousands of citizens like Oleksandr to flee.

This year, the city of the carol will likely mark its last Christmas under Ukrainian flags before it is completely reduced to ashes. Its fall would carry political weight: it could deepen Donald Trump’s doubts about Ukraine’s ability to hold the Donetsk region, increasing pressure on Kyiv in any future negotiations.

However, at Christmas time, its significance transcends politics. The destruction of Pokrovsk would be a loss not only for Ukraine but for the whole world, marking the erasure of a global cultural cradle.

Oleksandr heard Shchedryk, as Ukrainians call it, for the first time in his grandmother’s house when he was a small child. In Pokrovsk, as in any other region of Ukraine, children dressed up during Christmas celebrations and knocked on neighbors’ doors to sing carols in exchange for small gifts like candy, food, or money.

“I remember how we had pockets full of candy, a good mood, and relatives even gave me some money. It was very exciting because you could buy something,” Oleksandr said.

Back then, though, he had no idea that the song he was singing had been born in the same city he was.

Oleksandr recalls Pokrovsk as a city that embodied peace, harmony, and development. It was a city of miners, railway workers, and ordinary people who enjoyed stability in their lives. Oleksandr was among them, raising two daughters with the love of his life.

The city of Pokrovsk during the Christmas holidays before war started there. Source: ddk.dn.ua

As was common in the Donetsk region, an area rich with coal, he worked as a miner, pulling night shifts at the mine extracting coal while building a church during the day. And then, 20 years ago, he immersed himself fully in religion, meeting others in the city who were interested in Ukrainian Orthodoxy. That’s how he became the priest in his own Orthodox church of Ukraine, reviving original religious traditions in the city.

“We always celebrated Christmas at our church in Pokrovsk and decorated the Christmas tree there, singing ‘Shchedryk’ together as a [choir] before the Russian invasion,” Oleksandr recalled.

The spirit of Christmas would be impossible to imagine without the person who created its main melody, composer Mykola Leontovych.

Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych. Source: parafia.org.ua

‘Shchedryk,’ which later became known as ‘Carol of the Bells,’ was a pre-Christian ritual song sung before the arrival of spring, when the New Year was celebrated in Ukraine. It was a song about a swallow that was believed to predict a prosperous year ahead.

At that time, carols differed from traditional Christian ones, as they praised not Christ but the householders, wishing them prosperity. In return, according to tradition, carolers could receive money and food — a custom that has been preserved among Ukrainians and has survived to this day.

Leontovych heard this simple folk song, which had long existed, and composed a more profound choral melody for it at the beginning of the 20th century, a song that would later become known all over the world. Historians debate the exact place where the song was written, but its years of composition coincide with the period when Leontovych was working in Pokrovsk, then known as Hryshyne. It was there that he founded a music school and eventually organized a choir of railway workers.

Ukrainian National Chorus, which sang Shchedryk. Source: day.kyiv.ua

‘Shchedryk’ became more than just a Christmas song. It turned into a tool of Ukrainian diplomacy and a symbol of separation from Russia as early as a hundred years ago, when Ukraine nearly achieved full independence after the First World War.

The leadership of the Ukrainian state, already facing a Soviet advance, sought to break through Russian propaganda and help secure international recognition for Ukraine. This is why a choir toured European capitals in 1918 performing ‘Shchedryk.’

When the choir left for its tour, Russian troops were already approaching Kyiv – just like they are targeting Pokrovsk again now.

“Everything that existed in peaceful Pokrovsk is now in the past. Only memories, unspeakable pain and sadness are left,” Oleksandr said.

Pokrovsk has long been considered one of the most intense flashpoints on the front. It’s where Russians have concentrated their most significant forces, around 150,000 troops, attacking the city with FPV drones and glider bombs. In a single day this week, Russian troops unleashed more than 50 assaults on the town, and they are actively raising their flags to claim full capture.

Ukrainian forces are still fighting to hold the city, focusing on the northwestern outskirts. They have reclaimed captured areas and taken down the tricolor flags planted by Russians.

But dense fog has been working against the Ukrainian army. Under poor weather conditions, it becomes difficult to use drones to attack Russian columns, making it easier for them to maneuver within the city. As a result, Russian columns have entered the outskirts of the city using civilian motorcycles and cars.

Russians entering Pokrovsk on motorcycles in November 2025. Source: BBC.

“We constantly changed shelters, looking for basements to spend the night in. What I remember most is hearing ‘glider bombs, glider bombs, glider bombs’ on the radio, especially on the last night…They were targeting us,” Sasha, a soldier who was recently injured in Pokrovsk, told The Counteroffensive.

The Russians in Pokrovsk spare no one: neither soldiers nor civilians. Any person who dares to leave their basement in search of food or water risks being hit by a Russian FPV drone or other weapon. At the end of October, for instance, a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group infiltrated Pokrovsk and hid in the train station. There, they killed several civilians.

Many people Oleksandr knew personally in Pokrovsk and in the wider Donetsk region suffered similar fates.

“They didn’t give [my friends] any chance to stay alive,” Oleksandr said.

The church that Oleksandr built was also destroyed by the Russians. Source: risu.ua.

A year ago, Russians also destroyed the church he had put so much effort into building. All that remains of the church after the bombs fell is piles of rubble. Oleksandr learned of that devastation from a colleague when he was already in Vinnytsia, in the center of Ukraine.

His family had no choice but to flee when the Russians started to get closer to Pokrovsk in 2024. He still misses his hometown but takes solace in a small piece of Pokrovsk moving to Vinnytsia: The monument to composer Mykola Leontovych was moved there in September.

The monument to Mykola Leontovych. Source: naparisi.com.

The fate of Leontovych was no less tragic than that of the people dying in Pokrovsk today.

In 1921, Leontovych was killed by a Soviet state security agent who had entered his home disguised as a guest and shot the composer before robbing the family. At that time, any form of cultural self-identification was perceived by the regime as a threat, and Leontovych paid the price for ‘Shchedryk’ and his other works.

He missed seeing worldwide fame by just one month, as the Christmas song then spread across the world.

Now, the Russians want to finish what they were unable to do before and wipe out Ukraine’s Christmas spirit by capturing the song’s birthplace.

On the eve of the Christmas holidays, Oleksandr recalls Pokrovsk with utmost sorrow.

“No one will celebrate anything in the city… People are sitting in basements, being shot at by Russians, killed every day by drones, missiles, mortars, aerial bombs, and small arms. They are being tortured, cut, and raped there,” he said.

This year, Oleksandr will keep busy working in a church over the holiday, though he might have a minute to stop and think about his old life together with his family: two daughters and a 10-year-old granddaughter.

The child might ask her grandfather what happened to the city where she was born and spent a large part of her childhood – and she’ll hear that Pokrovsk is almost gone now.

There is a tiny hope that the city will survive, but reality suggests otherwise.

And for now, all we can do is watch the slow death of the city that gave the world the famous ‘Carol of the Bells.’

NEWS OF THE DAY:

By Oksana Stepura

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

ONE-OFF LAW FOR WARTIME ELECTIONS: Ruslan Stefanchuk, speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, has formed a working group to draft a specific, one-time law for holding elections during martial law, as reported by the Kyiv Post. The group aims to address complex security and logistical hurdles, such as voting access for soldiers and refugees, to ensure the elections are considered legitimate both in Ukraine and internationally. President Zelenskyy has expressed readiness for this move but noted that parliament still needs to reach a consensus on certain technicalities, including the potential for online voting.

RUSSIA’S WARTIME ECONOMY NEARS COLLAPSE: Despite maintaining strength throughout the war, Russia’s economy is nearing a breaking point. Plummeting oil prices and massive debt in the defense sector threaten a systemic banking crisis by 2026, as reported by The Washington Post. While the Kremlin continues utilizing its cash reserves for high military spending, those funds are now exhausted, leaving Russia with soaring inflation and unpaid wages across several industrial regions.

RUSSIAN WINTER SURGE RISKS LOGISTICAL COLLAPSE: Russia is launching a massive offensive in Ukraine, but military analysts warn that poor weather and overstretched supply lines could turn the surge into a costly failure, according to Forbes. While the increased manpower aims to break the current stalemate, Ukraine’s drone campaign is systematically isolating Russian units by destroying resupply vehicles and fuel depots.

DOG OF WAR:

Zoriana met this very focused dog near the supermarket close to her home. He was waiting for his owner, keeping an eye on the door, and then greeted him cheerfully with loud barks.

Stay safe out there.

Best,
Viktoria