I don't want to obsess about the war. I'd rather talk about the amazing calamari dish I had, or the beautiful beach on the Dnipro I sat on. But I guess I need to get it out of the way.
I knew when I decided to come to Kyiv that there would be some risk. I knew that it was naïve to think that I wouldn't experience some small piece of the war; and, it turns out, I did. All of the air raid alerts up until the last day had been scary but ultimately largely they didn't affect me; either the Ukrainian air defense shot everything down or the impact wasn't felt much in Kyiv. But on my last day, Kyiv's luck ran out. Russia apparently decided that Ukraine was having too much fun because they went all out with presents for New Year. Which is how I found myself cowering in Natalya's hallway while we heard explosions rock the neighborhood. Several missiles made it through, and one of them blew a good chunk out of a hotel not more than 2 miles from where I was staying. It's hard to put into words how terrifying that is. One of the aspects of this war is how modern technology changes it, and one of those changes is that we were getting information, in real time, from the Ukrainian government, about where the bombs were landing and what the damage was. Which is both very comforting and oddly terrifying. Every Telegram message that came through I would quickly copy and paste into the translation app: fire in this district. An elderly man died over here. Police are responding.
The air raids are the most visible impact of the war but they aren't the only one. The lights are often off in public places, for example, which definitely can be creepy. And on my last day, sitting in the train station, I watched a couple embrace while she left and he went off to war. On the train itself, I watched as an entire family - wife and two kids - left their husband behind and she kissed him. The son cried.
So, yeah, the story of my time in Kyiv is definitely to some extent a story of war.
But the thing is, Ukrainians are not defeated, nor are they exhausted. And they are not all thinking about the war all the time. This is not a society at the end of its rope. Civil society still exists. The train shows ads for cell phone upgrade packages and 40% off Scandinavian furniture. The metro is clean and efficient and on time. Whole chunks of the country, which my train is currently going through, are largely unaffected. There is actually a lot of traffic on the roads. Uber works. Gas stations are open. The mall is busy.
And the restaurants and bars are very much open and very delicious. For New Years Eve, I stumbled around looking for a place that was open (a lot of places were closed, not because of the war but just because it's a holiday) and ended up at a Chinese fusion cuisine restaurant which was very, very upscale and very, very good. I sat at the bar so I could chat up the bartenders; one guy in his 20s and another in this 30s. I asked about their experiences. The older guy said that when the war started he and his wife fled to Ivano-Frankiv; they spent the first night in Kyiv in a bunker and then couldn't stand the stress. But after 2 months, he started calling his old friends and boss and they said yeah, come on back, so they did, and now they just live life day by day; they both work, they're thinking about having a kid; they're just waiting for the war to be over. I asked the younger guy if he was worried about being called up for service and he gave me a weird look and said that he had already volunteered, but they told him they didn't need him yet.
I did a lot of walking again today as well; at one point I spotted a far away beach on the other bank of the Dnipro and decided to walk over there; I ended up crossing a huge, beautiful walking/cycling bridge and there were a lot of people out jogging. Nobody was at the beach, of course, because it was way too cold, but I went down there anywhere and sat and listened to some meditation tapes. Then I solemnly stuck my hand in the water - it was freezing - and then walked back. It felt very quiet and pleasant and safe.
So yeah; not an exhausted people. Maybe tired, yes, but far from exhausted.
Oh, and the calamari dish was fried calamari mixed with caramel popcorn, which sounds weird but was incredibly delicious.
