Lviv recovers the pulse lost with the Russian invasion


Like night and day. Or like black and white. Lvivthe largest city in the Ukraine western and reference urban center of the ukrainian nationalismhas recovered the daily pulse lost at the end of last February, as soon as the invasion of Russia. That dark, militarized town, populated by elusive citizens who were busy doing their shopping before curfew and patiently waiting in long lines at ATMs to withdraw the daily amount allowed in cash, has been transformed into a bright, cheerful population , full of life and where it’s even nice to walk.

Balloon sellers, occasional pencil and charcoal painters, individuals playing chess or checkers on the side benches, packed terraces and cafes, souvenir shops and even street orchestras made up of young musicians populate Liberty Avenue these days, the central boulevard that joins the Opera and Ballet Theater with the monument to Tara Sevchenko, the most celebrated figure of Ukrainian letters. At one end of the artery, three musicians nonchalantly interpret a particular version of Shum (noise in Spanish), the group’s song Go_A who represented the country and was fifth in the Eurovision Song Contest last year, a success that they aspire to surpass this year with the theme Stephaniefrom the folk rap band Kalush Orchestrain fact the big favorite to win in a week and a half in the betting lists.

In Lviv, during the central hours of the day, no one would say that we are in a city in war, or in a country whose armed forces face probably one of the most powerful and well-equipped armies on paper in the world. The russian bombing they follow one another, sometimes with droppers, sometimes with greater intensity, but they do not seem to make a dent in a population that feels that the bulk of the hostilities takes place far away. The strict winter curfew, then in effect from early evening, has been postponed to 11:00 p.m.

Get over the initial ‘shock’

“People have overcome shock after the attack and has gotten used to the new war situation,” says Andréi Magin, 50, owner of a downtown boutique hotel. Despite the fact that the day before a bombing coordinated against water and electricity plants caused momentary power and internet blackouts, he admits that “more people are seen on the street”. “Citizens know that if the rules dictated by civil protection are respected, the chances of being hit by a bombardment are equivalent to those of a traffic accident,” he points out.

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Taras Mussii, 17, is putting the finishing touches on the drum kit for what will be, in his words, his first musical performance outdoors. “I want to be a musician; we play jazz and rock,” he says. He accepts that the situation “is more relaxed” than in February, a fact that he attributes to the relative stabilization of the war frontin contrast to the chaos and uncertainty of the first hours of the stroke launched by the Kremlin. “People know what can happen, and above all that the Russians are not going to get here,” he lists. He has also learned to intelligently manage the air alerts. “When the siren sound is long, I know it’s going to be a major attack, and I hide in the shelter; when the sound is short, I don’t usually interrupt what I’m doing at the time,” he explains.

For Oleksei Kuse, 25 years old and in charge of a coffee stand, there is no possible comparison between then and now. During the winter, she worked just “eight hours” a day, a workday that has increased by nearly a third since the start of spring. “Now we sell for 13 hours and there are many more people on the street,” she notes. About the future, yes, nobody wants to guess. “It is possible that we will recover the territory that we have lost”, ventures the musician Mussi, without showing great conviction.


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