Soldier and cooking influencer from Ukraine

– Ruslan Mokrytskyj is a soldier in Ukraine. To distract himself from the war, he starts filming himself cooking – and becomes an internet phenomenon.

He is on the front lines in eastern Ukraine to defend the country in Russia’s war of aggression, which has been going on since February 24, 2022. But when Ruslan Mokryzkyj is not on duty for his country, he produces cooking content: He shows how he prepares meals with simple ingredients. The cooking takes place outside on a wooden table and a gas stove. Mokryzkyj now has 132,000 followers on Tiktok.

The drone pilot cooks pasta with tomatoes, onions and basil, he makes burgers, marinates bacon or serves a cream of mushroom soup – most of the simple dishes are on the soldiers’ menu. One Easter he filmed himself eating a typical Ukrainian speciality, “Paska”, while sitting in a trench. He accompanies his videos with classical music, Ukrainian chansons, songs about the war or modern pop music.

As a distraction from everyday war

“We spend an hour or two in a relaxed atmosphere,” the soldier told the AFP news agency about making his cooking video. Some of his comrades help him with filming and editing. At first he tried walking, music and films to distract himself from the everyday life of war. In the end, however, he wanted to “make simple videos about simple things.” That’s how the idea of ​​posting cooking content from the war came about.

He has also received prominent support: The internationally known rapper Alyona Alyona can be seen in a video by the cooking influencer in August 2023 – there are fried dough balls with peppers. Every now and then the dishes are a bit more elaborate: For example, there is Georgian khachapuri or homemade pasta.