Under Russian strikes in the Kyiv region, kosher honey continues to be poured for Rosh Hashanah: how Ukraine is preparing for the year 5787

In the Kyiv region, the production of kosher honey for holiday sets for tens of thousands of Jews in Ukraine continues to operate. Behind a jar of honey lies an entire system of local kosher production, Israeli supplies, and logistics that must be maintained during Russian attacks.

Author: Elena Gunko

In the industrial zone of the Kyiv region, kosher honey continues to be bottled for holiday sets for Rosh Hashanah 5787. The Israeli publication Kikar Hashabbat on August 31, 2026, showcased the production that operates during air raids and amid Russian attacks on the region’s logistics infrastructure. The honey factory itself was not hit — it is important not to distort this. But around it, warehouses and distribution centers repeatedly became targets of strikes in August.

Honey is bottled next to destroyed logistics

On August 5, a Russian attack affected logistics facilities in the Kyiv region; reports mentioned damaged warehouses in the Bucha and Fastiv districts. On August 12, warehouses in the Brovary district were on fire. On August 20, a distribution facility of ‘Fora’ in Martusivka was hit, which the company had started using only about a week before the attack. On August 27, facilities of Roshen, Comfy, ‘Budynok Igrashok’, ‘Fora’, and other companies were damaged or destroyed. On August 28, a strike hit the warehouses of ‘Nova Poshta’ in Sviatopetrivske, and on August 31, new fires were recorded in Pohreby.

The phrase about honey ‘despite the war’ is literal here: alarm, shelter, stock transfer, and a backup route have become part of the production shift.

A kosher network in Ukraine has been built over several years

Honey is just one element of the system that Jewish organizations in Ukraine began to restructure after 2022. Jewish Relief Network Ukraine and Chabad structures gradually moved away from a model where a significant portion of kosher food had to come from abroad. The war made imports more expensive, slower, and less reliable, so part of the production was moved inside the country.

The enterprise in the Kyiv region was prepared under the kosher supervision of Rabbi Yehoshua Wishetsky, associated with the ‘UkrKosher’ system. Similarly, supplies of meat and poultry were organized. In 2023, 15,000 jars of kosher honey were produced here for a relief campaign for approximately 50,000 Jews in Ukraine.

In Zaporizhzhia, another part of this chain appeared — kosher honey cookies. In one of the previous holiday campaigns, 44,000 pounds, about 20 tons, of such products were released for 30,000 sets. This is no longer a one-time charity but a production network.

The current packages include honey, meat, poultry, dairy products, canned goods, and other basic items. Honey cakes are delivered from Israel, and part of the baking is produced in Ukraine. Then pallets are distributed to communities: preparation took place in Berdychiv, Dnipro, Rivne, Pervomaisk, Chernihiv, and Bila Tserkva.

Materials about Rosh Hashanah and subsequent autumn holidays, as well as a special Jewish calendar, are added to the products. This is a small but important detail: the aid is conceived not just as food distribution. For elderly people and families who rarely visit the synagogue, the package becomes a direct connection with the local community before the holiday, which begins on the evening of September 11, 2026, in Ukraine.

Israel sees Uman, but the holiday lives throughout Ukraine

One line is important to me. Israel usually views Ukrainian Rosh Hashanah through Uman and tens of thousands of pilgrims. But the life of Ukrainian Jews is not limited to Uman. While Israelis plan a complex route through neighboring countries, people in Kyiv, Dnipro, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, and other cities are preparing to celebrate the holiday where they live under sirens.

JRNU distribution coordinator Rabbi Simcha Levenhartz says communities expect many people at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayers. After several years of war, people are more strongly seeking community, joint presence, and tradition. Rabbis noted this trend even earlier: those who were almost invisible in community life before the war began returning to synagogues.

For NANews — News of Israeld by specific logistics. Honey is produced near Kyiv, cookies in Ukraine, part of the holiday baking comes from Israel, meat and poultry are prepared under local kosher supervision, and then all this is distributed to dozens of cities.

NANews — News of Israel has already reported how Russian strikes on Kyiv region destroy warehouses and how Ukrainian Jewish communities continue to operate after night attacks. Here these two lines converge at one point: the holiday set must be assembled and delivered despite the destroyed logistics.

The most accurate formula for this story is therefore not ‘honey under fire’. Behind one jar is a system that the war forced to restructure: local production, kosher supervision, Israeli supplies, regional communities, and the final delivery to a specific person. If one warehouse disappears, the route has to change. If an alarm stops the line, work continues after the alert.

That is why Rosh Hashanah 5787 in Ukraine is also a test of the resilience of Jewish infrastructure. It does not negate the danger and does not romanticize the war. It shows that after four and a half years of full-scale invasion, Jewish life is sustained not only by symbols. It has to be produced, packaged, transported, and preserved daily.