On the Scene: A Molotov Cocktail Supplier

On the Scene: A Molotov Cocktail Supplier

Marc Santora📍Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

Until a week ago, Taras Maselka, 36, was preparing to host a beer and music festival. Now, he is directing the supplies to the resistance, including Molotov cocktails made in a secret location by the Pravda Brewery.

On the Scene: A Molotov Cocktail Supplier

Marc Santora📍Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

“It is just like the craft beer, it is a handmade thing,” Maselka told me. “The same approach you have in the craft beer, the same thing you have in preparing the cocktails.” The trickiest part, he said, is throwing it.

On the Scene: A Molotov Cocktail Supplier

Marc Santora📍Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

The brewery is in a sprawling factory yard that his company, First Republic, renovated. It includes a cafe, a bakery, a publishing house and an art gallery. (It is not where the cocktails are made.)

He calls it “a city within a city.”

On the Scene: A Molotov Cocktail Supplier

Marc Santora📍Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

The resistance work is not just making Molotov cocktails. Volunteers help organize other vital supplies for the citizen-soldiers around the country as well as helping those who are fleeing the fighting.

On the Scene: A Molotov Cocktail Supplier

Marc Santora📍Reporting from Lviv, Ukraine

Making Molotov cocktails is not something he wants to do, he said. It is something he has to do. “This is one of the things we can use to defend ourselves,” he said. He hopes that one day soon, he can turn back to music and beer.