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What → send → correspondents
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newsletter → sign → inbox
I’m at a cafe on a busy street where the locals are walking quickly to work on a slightly chilly morning.
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locals → ’m → morning
I’ve found a comfortable seat, ordered a flat white and decided to write about the things people never see in all the grim photographs of wartime destruction in Ukraine and its capital.
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people → find → Ukraine
So, I am writing about a city full of life, even as the people here confront so much death.
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people → write → death
I’m near the historic centre of Kyiv at a cafe that is part of the Idealist chain, which does a very good trade in matcha lattes.
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which → ’m → lattes
An artistic neon light decorates the ceiling.
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light → decorate → ceiling
People queue at the counter in their business dress: a woman in a soft pink suit, a man in a freshly ironed white shirt.
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People → queue → shirt
I’m shamed by the dress standards in this neighbourhood.
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I → sham → neighbourhood
For a moment, I can imagine a community at peace.
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I → imagine → peace
At nine o’clock, however, the background music cuts out, and a woman sitting near me rises to her feet.
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woman → cut → feet
The room goes quiet, and most of us follow her in standing for a minute’s silence for the country’s fallen soldiers.
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most → go → soldiers
This happens every morning across the country, although people vary in their commitment to the ceremony.
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people → happen → ceremony
When it ends, people just get on with their day.
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people → end → day
The war is all around us, and yet people will not let it crush them.
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it → let → them
Or putting fresh flowers on display. Or sweeping the streets every morning.
The constant presence of the war seems to lead Ukrainians to savour every peaceful moment all the more.
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presence → put → moment
, I saw young people gathered in a park to catch up over a few drinks.
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people → see → drinks
Yesterday, I saw children bouncing off each other during playtime at a library.
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children → see → library
One day earlier, I caught a glimpse of a regular gathering where kids dance to pop music in a plaza.
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kids → catch → plaza
These ordinary moments seem extraordinary in a city under attack.
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moments → seem → attack
My time in Ukraine is all about interviewing people dealing with immense hardship and incredible stress, but there are moments between interviews to join in the life of the city.
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time → interview → city
It helps that I met Julian Knysh, an Australian-Ukrainian filmmaker who has lived in Kyiv for the past four years.
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who → help → years
He took me to Sens, a bookshop cafe humming with activity.
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He → take → activity
I loved the way the cafe was the heart of a thriving social network.
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cafe → love → network
Knysh tells me there is a “choiceless determination” to live life despite the war.
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Knysh → tell → war
“There is enormous pain and at the same time great joy in celebrating a song, a theatre production that goes ahead (even if interrupted) and the simple everyday moments of connection,” he says.
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he → be → connection
As an example, he recounts a performance he saw by the Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan that was interrupted by an air-raid alert.
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that → recount → alert
Everyone moved to the basement.
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Everyone → move → basement
When Zhadan asked if they wanted him to resume, the crowd said yes.
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crowd → ask → ?
He continued the performance underground.
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He → continue → performance
I don’t write about this sense of joy to distract from the terror of the war.
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I → write → war
In fact, the beautiful moments I see in Kyiv only heighten my horror at the drone and missile attacks.
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I → see → attacks
If all we see of a people are the grim faces in the footage of blackened buildings, then we really don’t see them at all.
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we → see → them
At Sens, I also met Anastasiya Byesyedina, another Australian Ukrainian.
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I → meet → Byesyedina
She’s a historian who has lived here since 2022, and we spoke by phone in June for an article about the Russian drone attack on the historic Pechersk Lavra monastery.
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we → ’ → monastery
After the bookshop, we visited the monastery with Knysh and found that reconstruction was well underway.
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reconstruction → visit → Knysh
Byesyedina is worried about the coming winter.
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Byesyedina → come → winter
She lives in an apartment where the inside temperature fell to minus 10 degrees last winter.
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temperature → live → degrees
“We didn’t have water or access to electricity for about two months,” she tells me.
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she → have → me
“It was quite difficult to seek any help from the government at different levels.”
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It → seek → levels
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
