Echoes from Ukraine

By Valentin Jedraszyk | October 2025

At 5 Rue Littré, in Paris’s quiet 6th arrondissement, the aroma of coffee mingles with the scent of fresh flowers. Here stands U.graine, a peaceful place that feels like home, part café, part florist. A spot born from love, exile, and the will to start again. Behind the counter, four smiles and a calm energy. The project brings together two Ukrainian families: Sophia and Ivan, who gave life to the floral part, and Oleksii and his mother Kateryna, who created the coffee experience.

U.graine, a café and florist born from love, exile, and the will to start again – photo courtesy of U.graine

🌸 Born in Ternopil, blooming in Paris

Let’s begin with the floral side of U.graine. The story started when Ivan left Ukraine for France in 2014 and found his path in the world of flowers. Sophia arrived much later, after the full-scale invasion, together with her sister. Before the war, she ran a small creative studio of her own. “I’ve always loved beauty in small details and… flowers,” she says. Perhaps that’s why her encounter with Ivan felt so natural. In a twist of fate, they are both from Ternopil but met only in France while volunteering for a scouts’ organization that gathers hundreds of young Ukrainians.

Fresh floral arrangement – photo courtesy of U.graine

Eventually they married and settled in Lyon, where their baby was born. Between work and studies, far from home, they built a life of their own in a new language and culture. “It wasn’t easy at first,” Sophia recalls, “but it taught us to rely on each other completely.” Life in Lyon was peaceful but maybe a little too much. “It was beautiful,” she smiles, “but I need movement, people, and conversations. Paris was calling.” Their small online flower business was already reaching the capital, so they decided to move and make it real.

☕ From Kyiv, brewing in Paris

Let’s move to the other half of U.graine, the one that grew from Kyiv’s vibrant coffee culture and from Oleksii and his mother, Kateryna. Oleksii likes to joke that he’s “the most toxic kind of Kyiv guy.” After studying philosophy at the National University, where he focused on the phenomenology of art, he moved to Paris for an MBA and began working with UNESCO and several galleries. Those experiences led him to co-found Spilka Paris, a collective uniting Ukrainian artists abroad. Around that time, he also discovered specialty coffee and the beauty hidden in the art of brewing.

A cup of espresso served in the coffee corner of U.graine – photo courtesy of U.graine

His mother Kateryna, an economist who once worked in Ukraine’s public administration, fled Kyiv with Oleksii’s younger brother when the full-scale invasion began. His father, employed in the nuclear industry, stayed behind. “Someone has to,” he told them, wanting his family safe so he could act without fear. After a short stay in Brittany, Kateryna and her younger son moved to Paris, though finding a home was nearly impossible. Even with four guarantors, landlords refused to rent to them. Today, they all live together under one roof.

🌾 Making a place of their own

In February 2022, both families volunteered for Ukrainian relief efforts in Paris. Among boxes and long days, they met. Several strangers but driven by the same instinct to act. What started in urgency grew into a quiet friendship. Months later, when they saw each other again, talks about opening a small place of their own slowly turned into plans. They wanted to bring a touch of home with them. In Ukraine, cafés are spaces of warmth and care, filled with plants, art, and conversation, something still rare in France. From that longing, the idea took shape.

Sunflower bouquet prepared at U.graine – photo courtesy of U.graine

Nothing came easily. Their first location fell through, four banks turned them down, and they renovated the place themselves. “It used to be a massage salon,” Ivan laughs. After six weeks of work, U.graine finally opened its doors in September 2025. The name came last. “At first, we thought of Mak Café,” Sophia recalls — mak means poppy in Ukrainian — “but everyone said it sounded too much like McDonald’s.” Then Oleksii suggested U.graine, a play on Ukraine and you are the seed. “It felt right,” Sophia smiles. “Because that’s what we all are, seeds, trying to grow again.”

🌻 A Ukrainian soul in Paris

The café is barely a month old, yet already full of life. From the start, they saw U.graine as more than a shop. Today, it feels like a fragment of Ukraine replanted in the heart of Paris, a seed of home taking root where life has brought them to stay. Most visitors are Ukrainians, but everyone is welcome. “When I hear people speaking Ukrainian here,” Sophia says, “I feel like I’m home again.” Oleksii wanted the same, a place for exiles to breathe, to feel safe for a moment. “Coffee is a cheap kind of luxury,” he adds. “When you’re a refugee, you can’t afford much, but you can afford a peaceful morning with a good cup.”

Cafés in Ukraine aren’t just places to drink coffee; they’re places to stay, to talk, to feel. U.graines carries that same quiet vibes. The menu blends Parisian design with Kyiv’s creativity : homemade desserts and that espresso tonic I can’t help but love, a small taste of Central and Eastern Europe that’s hard to find in France. The roast is different, too. Ivan smiles: “In Ukraine, people prefer it aromatic and delicate. Here in Paris, it’s all about strength. We just make it the way we would back home.” Oleksii adds, “In Kyiv, people drink to feel; in Paris, they drink to wake up.” Every month, they change their beans — Ethiopia, Colombia, India — small reminders that life doesn’t repeat, and every harvest, like every story, has its own flavor.

A meeting place for flowers, coffee, and stories from Ukraine – photo courtesy of U.graine

More than a café, U.graine has become a small cultural hub, a home for creation, memory, and care, where exhibitions, book launches, and concerts fill the space with voices from Ukraine and its diaspora. That rhythm will continue soon with Crimea, where a photographer will present his work created from rescued archives. Small gestures of care and remembrance for those still living under occupation, all profits will support Ukraine. Spilka Paris often joins in, keeping the dialogue alive. What started as a shared space for coffee and flowers is slowly becoming a living bridge between cultures, between home and elsewhere.