The people of Kiev seek to ‘live normally’ amid the fighting

16 days after Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine, life in the capital Kiev has completely changed.

However, there are signs that those who hold on are finding ways to return to normal life, even as danger lurks around them.

People get off the tram in Kiev on March 12.

On Observatorna street in central Kiev, a group of people watched Minister Reznikov’s call on March 11.

`Now we only reach people by word of mouth,` said Yulia Stets, director and stylist of a hair salon in Kiev.

Stets said she returned to work on March 9.

Air raid sirens sound every few hours in Kiev.

However, conflict is still very close to them.

Stets and her only remaining hairdresser, Taras Savchenko, converted one of the salon’s rooms into an archive for volunteer activities in Kiev and Ukraine in general.

Savchenko said he thought about cutting his hair on March 10.

Non-essential stores, bars, restaurants, hotels and a series of entertainment venues in Kiev have closed.

He went into town to buy some groceries.

The Park Inn, a gleaming glass tower, and the city’s Olympic stadium were deserted.

Back at Stets’ hair salon, a doctor working at Kiev’s hospital No. 17 walked in to deliver some supplies.

When the fighting first broke out, the Ukrainian government asked people to stay at home and not go to work.

In his latest speech on March 11, President Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine and the capital had survived 16 days of conflict, longer than Russia and many Western countries had predicted.

Kemal Seitveliyev, owner of Kiev’s most famous restaurant serving traditional dishes, Musafir, said he is considering reopening.

Musafir used to have three branches in Kiev, but Seitveliyev said they can only operate one branch because, like Stets’s hair salon, most of the employees have left.