What Ukrainians Eat During the War 🇺🇦 @Tetiana Sim
Watch on YouTube · 2026-02-10 · 25 min
0:00 Hi, today we are going to be looking at what people in Ukraine eat during these hard times.
[video] 0:05 Today, friends, we're buying and trying some of the cheapest Ukrainian groceries possible, real survival food. In the current economic situation in Ukraine, more and more people are really struggling to cover their basic needs because prices are going up like crazy and the US dollar has climbed to 43 Ukrainian hryvnias for one dollar. So that's crazy and... Hryvnia.
0:31 I've been to Ukraine twice.
[video] 0:34 Cheap food, even if it's not the best quality, has become a survival option for many pensioners, for many people with limited incomes. And today I am taking you with me to some budget frugal grocery shopping at the most well-known hard discount in Ukraine called ATB. You can see it behind me. So, guys, ATB is a very famous, I would say, legendary supermarket chain here in Ukraine. And their strategy is very simple.
1:03 The Soviet buildings in the background. I grew up in Eastern Europe. I grew up in such a building. It's not pretty looking buildings, but I right away think of home when I see them.
[video] 1:19 attract as many price-conscious shoppers as possible. People come here for low prices. And Atabay has its own private labels that are some of the cheapest on the shelves, and this is what we are going to buy today. So, this chain is so famous in Ukraine that it even pops up in songs, in memes. On social media, you can see people traveling around the world with their iconic Atabay plastic bags. It's a people's shop putting low prices first, and this is exactly what we need today.
1:50 It's kind of like Lidl in Germany and the UK.
[video] 1:56 Today we're buying food from just one hardcore budget brand called Smart Choice or Razumni Vybir in Ukrainian. It's at the best private label and while it's definitely a smart choice if you want to save money, it may not be the smartest choice if you're looking for a healthy diet and good quality food.
[video] 2:15 If you want to be really healthy, you have to eat our Eastern European porridge called buckwheat. It is very healthy. It's actually not very cheap.
2:28 It's not healthy at all. It's very unhealthy. All seeds are unhealthy. And remember, she said that this is what they eat to survive. Even though in reality, a lot of people in Eastern Europe eat this. I... ate a little bit of it when i was a child my mother used to make it now and then but i didn't like it even if you would use a lot of butter i didn't like it we called it gritty in latvia sounds pretty similar for a pack of smart choice buckwheat we have to pay one dollar in ukraine it's not very cheap but it will last long and it is very healthy so guys we will definitely It's not healthy and the healthy food is not cheap. Anyway, these are seeds which come from plants, flowers, flowering plants.
3:26 They get these seeds out and then they feed the masses with the seeds. The goal is not to thrive, be full of life, be really healthy. The goal is to survive famines, really hard times, which would apply here.
[video] 3:50 Let's take one pack of Smart Choice back with today.
[video] 3:58 The foundation of any Ukrainian dinner or lunch is porridge. We eat a lot of porridges and we eat buckwheat. Of course we eat rice, but also some stuff that you might never even tried in your life.
4:10 So for example, none of this is food for the simple reason that you need to process, prepare, cook all of these seeds. You cannot eat them in the raw state because naturally they are not made for your body. Some animals, may try to eat them, but they are hard for a reason. They are protected. Typically, most animals stay away from seeds. Animals that crawl around in the trees may try to eat some seeds here and there, but also more so to survive, because squirrels eat meat. A lot of people don't know this. They eat raw meat. They also hunt down animals and eat them.
[video] 4:58 None of this is healthy and if I had nothing else, I would also eat it, of course. You choose that over starving to death, that's common sense. But this should never be seen as healthy.
[video] 5:26 At least she says that you can eat them with meat. Pelmeni.
5:55 This I also used to eat as a child. Not that often, but my mother used to make them. But all of this is not real actual food. There's meat inside of the pelmeni, but still you have the grain sludge, the seed slime around it. Because all of these seeds, as I said, are supposed to feed the masses. The wealthy, rich people eat... Meat-based, animal-based, obviously.
[video] 6:28 Russian?
6:53 Do they come from Russia or what does she mean? I would assume that they would try to boycott Russian products. No, I don't know.
[video] 7:02 One thing you have to pay only $1. It's pretty cheap, but I found even a cheaper option and it's really hardcore guys. These are sprouts in tomato sauce. And this kind of canned fish was very, very common back in the USSR. And we have to pay less than $1 for one thing. So I think we should...
7:22 Yes, very common but can cause heavy metal toxicity. Again, if you have nothing else, Understandable, but risky also. They accumulate and then you get really sick. Your organs become toxic. It's not a good idea. Here and there a few cans won't do anything, but if you consume it every day, then it will not end well.
[video] 7:55 Try this iconic canned fish.
[video] 8:00 ATB launched SmartChoice as a budget private label to help customers afford basic food during tough economic times. Prices stay low thanks to low-cost ingredients, basic packaging, and no spending on branding or advertising. ATB offers around 1,000 private label products in total, and a large portion of those are from the SmartChoice budget line. She also doesn't look healthy.
8:32 Maybe she's also a bit older. It's hard to say how old she is, but she does have very visible eye bags. Obviously, she's stressed the food is bad. I'm just saying. It should be understood that this is what it will do to you. And some of this is simply out of her control, obviously. What can you do? You're trying to survive. If I was in her situation, I guess that I would be doing the same.
[video] 9:00 Supermarket is a huge aisle with alcohol. Wine that are produced in Ukraine is pretty affordable, but smart choice is of course cheaper than anything else. And 63 hryvnias for one liter of dry Sauvignon wine and it says that it is produced in Ukraine. So let's grab this pack. We will pay 63 hryvnias.
9:25 Ukrainians, Russians and all Eastern Europeans drink a lot. It's because of the harsh times, the wars, low income. You know it if you grew up in a place like that.
[video] 9:42 Ukraine actually produces a lot of beer and we have some imported beer. I believe Stella Artois is an imported beer, but we have also Smart Choice beer, which is actually less than a dollar. It's like 80 cents for 900 milliliters of Smart Choice beer. I think it's going to be a company to our pack of Smart Choice wine. Let's try some beer. Guess what products are probably the most expensive here. These are some imported chocolates and sweets. So a box of Ferrero Rocher costs 336 hryvnias. That's insane. This brand is actually Ukrainian. It's called Roshan and it's from our former president company. So a box of these chocolates is 500 hryvnias. So instead we will try some cookies because
10:29 Again, it's the same as the rest. They sell you whole seeds or you buy processed seeds. But at the end of the day, it's all the same. It's about feeding the masses with seeds, making you sick, lowering your lifespan to 60-70 and just before you get your pension, you kick the bucket.
[video] 10:54 we also like to have some cookies with tea so we will grab this one it is discounted 300 grams for tea is very unhealthy it's made out of toxic green leaves usually or whatever kind of leaves then better use milk less than one dollar let's take it
[video] 11:22 We are fully committed to the smart choice lifestyle today, guys. So I also grabbed some canned corn and a strange cheese spread. And now we're gonna find out how much this old beauty will cost us.
11:39 It's really sad that people eat this today. It is the way it is.
11:53 I wouldn't eat any of that. I would eat canned fish if I had nothing else at all. And the rest, if there was a famine, sure, then I would eat just about anything. And this is how it should be seen. It's famine food. And the people who eat a vegan diet nowadays or just plant-based eat this kind of food voluntarily. This is why I wanted to review this video because I was expecting something like this. It's a bit worse than I expected though.
[video] 12:36 and a bag of super, super budget-friendly crisis groceries cost me only $9.30. And I also didn't show you guys that I got a roll of hardcore smart choice toilet paper and a bottle of water. So if we put this amount of money in perspective, in many Western countries, that's probably only enough for a cup of fancy Starbucks coffee or tea, but here you can buy a bag of groceries. And when I share Ukrainian prices on different things, people often comment that, Because Ukrainian salaries are so low, these prices aren't actually cheap. And that's a valid point. The minimum Ukrainian salary in 2026 is only $200. Yes, and state pensions can be even lower. It depends. It depends on a person's work history.
13:19 Interesting. In the 90s, when I was a child, the typical salary was 100 lat.
13:29 which would be 200 euros i guess that back then it would have been more because uh the latvian currency had a lot of worth compared to others obviously it's all imaginary none of it actually exists but you understand what i mean if you would compare them maybe it would be the equivalent to 400 euros today in 2026? I don't know. You could kind of survive on that. And if somebody earned 500 lats or lati, then you would be seen as pretty wealthy.
[video] 14:13 Anyways. Even though life can be really tough, you still can afford some cheap food and we will unpack and try it out.
14:33 Okay, it's the fish, then we have corn and gritti.
14:50 The cat doesn't even want to eat it. Or what is going on? That's a bad sign.
[video] 14:57 And it's time to try the Russian dumplings, the most expensive item. $2.25. So let's try it. It might taste strange.
[video] 15:11 The feel...
15:12 It's interesting that she boils them. I once went to a different town to some family from far away and I ate the so-called dumplings, pelmeni, that's what we call them, and I actually almost threw up. I didn't want to be impolite. And that's why I tried to fake my face expression as if I kind of like it or as if it's neutral. But when I put it in my mouth, I was really gagging. I really had trouble swallowing it. Just because they were boiled. There is just something so disgusting about it. It's the grain sludge, not the meat.
[video] 16:00 feeling of these dumplings is like a you know generic meaty mixture you don't really feel it is chicken but the taste is absolutely fine I tried many different Russian dumplings from different brands including a very expensive ones the most expensive and the taste is pretty much the same maybe the smart choice brand puts worse ingredients but taste wise I And again, it's very important to understand this. During the times of famines, wars, starvation, people had very little to no meat, sometimes only some dairy.
16:50 But they wanted to eat a lot of food, obviously, naturally. And that's why they created the slime out of seeds. They then cooked it and that's how they filled their stomachs. That doesn't mean that they were healthy, they were not feeling satiated, but it gives you the illusion of eating actual food, and that's how all of these modern dishes came about, such as pasta, pizza, it's all imitations of animals, it's all famine starvation food. And I wanted to review this to show you that this is what people eat when they have no food, when they are poor.
17:41 And people in the so-called West, wherever, people who are wealthy today, still eat seeds, noodles, grain sludge with marmalade inside, or meat, which is what this is. And there's no need for you to eat that. That's the crazy part. People today eat famine food.
[video] 18:06 Cheaper. I would give it a solid 7 out of 10. Now let's try our epic dry wine. I can't judge wine properly. I'm not an expert. My only criterion whether I will feel well tomorrow. A cheap drink will not solve your financial problems, but it might leave your mood for 20-ish minutes, and it also helps during hard times. So cheers, guys.
18:39 It will simply cause liver failure in the end.
[video] 18:42 I cooked myself a super low-budget main dish, buckwheat sprouts in tomato sauce and a canned corn. So let's see how it tastes. It is just regular buckwheat. Everything is very decent. All these flavors are very familiar to people who was born in the USSR. So this food is so basic, but for us, it tastes pretty good and we can definitely survive eating something like this.
19:19 So I would- It is very interesting how the human body can survive eating that. It's amazing.
19:27 But you can of course see the consequences. People who eat this are not healthy, nothing even close to it, and they have very short lifespans, and oftentimes they become really sick.
[video] 19:41 A 7 out of 10.
19:47 I would give the meal a 1 or a 2 out of 10. Maybe a 2 because of the fish. Alright. A 1 would be the corn and the buckwheat only.
[video] 20:02 As I'm not an expert, I can tell that this beer has a very light taste and it feels like they pour a little bit of water in it, so it's not very flavorful. I can't even rate it, guys. It is just some cheap beer. And last but not the least, we have these cookies, oatmeal cookies. They are very common in Ukraine and...
20:25 they smell delicious but they cookies are grain sludge filled with sugar all kinds of sweeteners drugs essentially meaning that you're eating slime made out of seeds Baked into this circle all kinds of funny forms are always created for the slaves for the children little animals It's as if you're eating animals It's really messed up actually when you think about it And then they add all of the sugar and whatnot to make you swallow it because otherwise you wouldn't Try eating a cookie without sugar or anything else. You won't be able to you won't swallow the seed slime, but
21:09 with all of that again you can feed the masses and they will swallow it out of desperation because of hunger are a little bit hot so maybe and again just to be clear as i said before it's the same with the pizzas and pastas but this is a sweet version of the same it's not food it's non-food slime
21:36 being made into something which we are supposed to see as food and as a child you don't know any better so you eat it especially together with milk not very fresh but smell is is really good
[video] 21:53 And I decided...
21:54 Yes, the smell is good because of the sugar or whatever else may be added to it, but not because of the seeds.
[video] 22:01 ...to spread some cheese that we also got from the Smart Choice brand. The cheese is very kind of creamy.
[video] 22:15 maybe it won't be very tasty but i'll tell you it's it isn't very tasty the cookies are i would say delicious the cookies are nine out of ten just because they are a little bit hard but this cheese no i didn't like it And this was some really cheap Ukrainian food. Only the dumplings cost around two dollars. Everything else was around a dollar. And this kind of food can definitely help you survive during tough times. You might not enjoy this food very much, but it is definitely edible. And it's a good thing that some really affordable items are sold in regular supermarkets like ACB.
23:04 It really needs to be understood that this is famine food. This is what you should be eating if you have no real food. The people who are in control want you to believe that this is healthy this is why she said that at the beginning of the video in the supermarket she looks at hard seeds that come from flowers plants and she tells you that it's healthy they want you to believe that because they are not looking out for your health. That should be clear. They want to simply feed everybody, but they do not care how long you will live, if you will get some kind of disease, and you should expect that if this is what you eat in your everyday life. They simply want you to survive for a while.
24:05 And it's somewhat doable. You will feel sick, Your digestion will be horrible, but you can get some kind of so-called energy out of this fake food. And if you don't do a lot, if you don't require a lot of energy in your everyday life and you mostly sit in your apartment, then you will survive for a while. As long as there's a little bit of meat and dairy also. that you eat along with the seeds. The people who taught you to eat this food eat grass-fed meat, oysters, scallops, caviar themselves. But they want you to believe that it's actually healthy or at the very least that you can survive and maybe even somewhat thrive eating this food. They want you to believe
24:59 that it is real food and in reality it couldn't be further from the truth and your intuition tells you that it's not real food that's why you need to prepare it the seeds need to be processed you will not simply put them in your mouth and eat them because it is not food thanks for watching