In Kyiv and much of the western part of the country, prewar life has largely returned for civilians, says Ukrainian journalist Halyna Pastushuk.
People eat in restaurants, drink in bars, dance and enjoy sunny days in parks. In the east and south, where much of the fighting has been focused, people continue to live with the terror and destruction of Russian assaults.
And in many places, Ukrainians are now living under Russian occupation, the starkest possible contrast to the relative ease of life in the capital or my native city of Lviv.
In these relatively safe cities, some people say they feel guilt and grief that life can seem almost normal while so many Ukrainians are caught in the war’s widespread death, destruction and displacement.
In the capital Kyiv, 90 percent of retail and 80 percent of service businesses have reopened, according to the mayor’s office.
In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, meanwhile, many say they feel frustration and resignation about their brutal reality.
Halyna Pastushuk reports from Lviv.
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This war has its distinct phases. The first phase was the very beginning, when everybody was in a state of shock and the days felt like weeks, and the time was suspended as the struggle for the Ukrainian capital was on the brink of defeat. Then came the second phase when Russian troops retreated from the northern front-line and it was clear that Kyiv withstood the major attack and stayed Ukrainian. The third phase was in summer when the tangible military support from western countries, including US and Britain, started to arrive. Ukrainian strikes on Crimean peninsula in August and the beginning of counter-offensive in early September marked the fourth, current stage, when Ukrainians are actively focusing on planning their after-war life.
Lviv still bears signs of wartime trauma. Sandbags, roadblocks and soldiers pepper the quiet city, now partially militarized. The city shuts down by curfew each night. Air raid sirens occasionally wail, though far less than early in the war, when many people lived in bomb shelters. Ukrainian flags, artwork and signs for military-focused fundraisers are everywhere.
Living in Lviv now is relatively safe and peaceful. Most businesses are back, schools and universities are functioning mostly off-line. The occasional air raid sirens, though, may disrupt your plans from time to time. It is an established rule that between air raid sirens children are not allowed to leave homes for school. If the starting sirens find them on the way to school, they are supposed to take care of themselves and find a shelter. In case if they are close to school, they are instructed to run for the school shelter. Although there has been no shelling in Lviv since early May, for safety reasons, these instructions are to be strictly followed in all public schools. At times, picking up a child from school at a regular time may be a trouble since the whole school may be in the shelter, and if so, the teachers are not allowed to let anyone out until the air-raid warning is over.
As I walk through the city now, there are four things which strike and make Lviv unusual: sandbags in cellar windows, occasional sirens, no planes in the skies and no tourists in the streets.
Lviv has always attracted tourists in a special way. Tourism was one of the key development points in the city’s strategy. Hotels, restaurants, ancient architecture, wonder trains and numerous festivals were the hallmarks of the city. According to the deputy mayor of Lviv, Andrii Moskalenko, all this brought 500 million hryvnias to Lviv’s budget every year. In pre-quarantine times, 2.5 million people visited our city during a year, last year we had one and a half million guests. During the pandemic, Lviv became popular among tourists from Saudi Arabia.
Currently, there are practically no foreign tourists. Instead, Lviv is teeming with foreign journalists, volunteers, and representatives of international organizations.
The current war is hybrid. And even if there are no direct military threats, information you hear can hardly make you feel rested. In the last two weeks news and analytical programs are teeming with questions: what if Putin attacks with a tactical nuclear weapon? Shall we survive? What can we do to survive? Talks about emergency nuclear backpacks are on everyone’s tongue. People also discuss issues related to the recent mobilization in Russia and the preparations of railway connections and network of airports in Belarus to receive more armed forces, most probably Russian. That could pose a direct threat to the cities like Lutsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, which remained almost untouched by military attacks so far.