Despite intensified Russian attacks across Ukraine, Chabad’s Jewish Relief Network Ukraine (JRNU) is moving ahead with a massive Rosh Hashana aid operation that will bring holiday food packages to tens of thousands of Jews across the war-torn country.

At the center of the operation is an unlikely scene in the Kyiv region: a honey production facility continuing to operate in an industrial area where logistics centers and large warehouses have sustained heavy damage in recent weeks.

Despite the surrounding attacks, the facility selected to produce pure honey for the Rosh Hashana packages has remained standing, and workers are continuing production under difficult conditions, with the sound of machinery at times accompanied by air raid sirens.

“We are operating under complex conditions, but the sweet tradition of Rosh Hashana will not be stopped,” JRNU officials said.

As communities across Ukraine prepare for the upcoming month of Tishrei, local Rabbonim and Shluchim are working around the clock to ensure that Jews can observe the Yomim Tovim properly despite the ongoing war and the dangers that have become part of daily life.

JRNU, which coordinates large-scale humanitarian assistance for Jewish communities throughout Ukraine, made a strategic decision to produce many of the basic food and holiday items inside Ukraine itself, using local facilities specially prepared for kosher production.

The honey facility in the Kyiv region is one example. The plant was prepared for kosher production under the supervision of Rabbi Yehoshua Vyshetsky of the UkrKosher kashrus organization.

In addition to honey production, special shechita operations for meat and poultry have also been arranged in Ukraine during the war, providing products under mehudar kashrus standards for the upcoming distribution.

The main stage of the Rosh Hashana operation is scheduled to begin next week, when a fleet of large aid trucks will depart distribution centers carrying pallets of food to dozens of Jewish communities throughout the country.

The shipments will be delivered to Jewish community centers in cities across Ukraine. From there, local distribution networks will bring the packages directly to community members’ homes in an organized and dignified manner.

The extensive packages will include poultry, fresh meat and jars of locally produced honey, along with dairy products, canned foods and spreads. Special honey cakes are being brought from Israel by air, while holiday cookies are being produced in the heavily affected city of Zaporizhzhia.

The packages will also contain Ukrainian-language materials explaining the significance and customs of the Tishrei Yomim Tovim, as well as a specially produced Jewish calendar featuring Jewish content and photographs from community life.

Jewish communities across Ukraine are also preparing for what organizers expect could be record attendance at shuls and holiday programs this year.

“We are preparing for an unprecedented number of people to come for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur davening,” said Rabbi Simcha Levenhartz, a Shliach in Kyiv who is coordinating the distribution operation.

“After such a long and exhausting period of war and uncertainty, people are looking more than ever for togetherness and tradition,” he said. “We are all looking ahead and will daven together that the coming new year will finally be a peaceful, calm and sweet year.”