"All Red" Mode: Does the Minute of Silence Work on Kyiv Roads? Video from the City Center

Every day at 9:00 in Kyiv traffic stops for a minute during the nationwide minute of silence. “Hlavkom” recorded how this happens on different days in the city center – on Khreshchatyk near TSUM and on Maidan Nezalezhnosti.

At 9:00 on Khreshchatyk police officers step onto the roadway and stop cars. Drivers stop moving, and pedestrians also freeze. After that, a message about the start of the minute of silence and a countdown to its end is played over the city’s public-address system.

A similar scene was recorded by a “Hlavkom” correspondent on Maidan Nezalezhnosti on another day. Traffic stops for the minute of silence, and after 60 seconds the city returns to its usual rhythm.

This procedure in Kyiv was introduced by a decision of the Kyiv City Council, which deputies adopted on 3 September 2026. The document provides for a daily stoppage of traffic at 9:00 for 60 seconds during the nationwide minute of silence.

In practice, implementation of the new mode began later: the Kyiv City State Administration announced its start from 15 September. Within the mode’s area all traffic signals simultaneously switch to red – for cars, pedestrians, and cyclists. At 9:01 the traffic lights return to normal operation. Surface public transport is also stopped for the minute of silence.

In the first stage the “All Red” mode started at 18 traffic light locations in Kyiv’s central area. These include Khreshchatyk, European Square, Bessarabskyi Passage, Baseina Street, Volodymyrska Street, Prorizna Street, Velyka Vasylkivska, Yevhen Chykalenko Street and Taras Shevchenko Boulevard. The list of sections will be expanded later taking technical readiness into account.

At the same time, this mode is not applied during an air raid alert. Operational and special vehicles carrying out urgent tasks with their special signals on are not stopped either.

The decision on “Red Kyiv” was developed under a protocol assignment from Mayor Vitali Klitschko after appeals from Kyiv Council deputies who are currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. As explained by Kyiv City State Administration Deputy Head Kostiantyn Usov, the decision is intended to make the minute of silence in the capital visible and turn it into a daily tradition of remembrance.

Loudspeakers have been operating for over a year

Reminders about the minute of silence via sound systems on Khreshchatyk and Maidan Nezalezhnosti, at 19 metro stations and on surface public transport were introduced back in 2025. And since 13 April 2026 a short message about the start of the minute of silence at 9:00 has also been broadcast daily through the city’s public-address loudspeakers where technically possible – at that time more than 400 notification points were in use.

Not everyone supports the loudspeakers

As early as May 2026, several months before the launch of the “All Red” mode, a petition was registered on the Kyiv Council website calling not to use the city’s public-address system to announce the minute of silence. The author of the petition noted that after nighttime Russian attacks some Kyiv residents try to catch up on sleep, and daily announcements at 9:00 via loudspeakers disturb that. As of 13 July the petition had only 844 votes of the required 6 thousand, so it was not submitted for consideration.

Reaction of Kyiv residents

The introduction of the “All Red” mode provoked mixed reactions on social media. Kyiv residents actively discussed the innovation and commented on it in Telegram channels.

Some users called the mandatory stoppage of traffic an unnecessary intrusion into personal rights to honor the memory of the fallen, arguing that forced observance is not genuine tribute. Others, on the contrary, said that daily remembrance of the dead should become as automatic as household habits, since the lives of Kyiv residents are preserved at the cost of others’ sacrifices.

There were also compromise views: some commentators acknowledged that the practice of a minute of silence is correct and already in effect in a number of western Ukrainian cities – Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia – but emphasized that commemoration should come from a sincere desire, not by order, otherwise it loses meaning. Skeptics of this argument replied that the same logic “my will – I observe if I want, I don’t if I don’t” can be applied to any other social norms.

There were also more cautious comments — that sooner or later the city could face the opposite and unpopular decision to cancel the stoppage of traffic and the minute of silence, so such initiatives should be approached very carefully.