‘You Can’t Live Underground’: Fatalism and Defiance Define Life in War-Battered Kyiv

Air raid warnings wail across Kyiv, and phone apps spark into life, telling people to proceed to the nearest shelter. But on the streets of the Ukrainian capital on a warm Friday morning in early September people walk around untroubled by the alarms, enjoying the late summer sun. Sitting outside cafes, others chat over coffee as the warnings go unheeded. JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Their lives and the city, in many ways, look at peace. But it is a beguiling appearance, hiding the pressure on a people desperate to maintain a semblance of normality amid the ferocity of war while refusing to be cowed by Russian aggression. Kyiv’s residents are aware of the dangers. The incoming Russian jet-powered drones the Friday morning alarms warned of killed two and wounded 12 when they struck a filling station on the outskirts of the city. People know that death can come from the skies at any time. Since late August a combination of Moscow’s increasing use of jet-powered drones and Ukraine’s shortage of interceptor missiles means that attack warnings in Kyiv now come around the clock. Daytime strikes, once a rarity, have become the norm. What the people of Kyiv also know, and increasingly feel, is that the intensity and frequency of the Russian attacks would reduce their lives to nothing if they followed every warning and headed for the shelters. “People have become very fatalistic,” says Kyiv resident Natalia, a television presenter and journalist who spends many nights sleeping in her bathroom, the one room in her flat with no exterior walls, rather than the safer basement. “They feel if their time comes, their time comes.” Other Topics of Interest Russia Fired 2,000 Drones and 19 Missiles This Week, Zelensky Says Russia launched over 2,000 drones, 1,700 glide bombs, and 19 missiles this week, with most drones jet-powered, Volodymyr Zelensky said. This acceptance of whatever fate may bring is becoming increasingly widespread in the city, as people search for a way to cope with the tiredness, fear and anxiety caused by the constant attacks. “I live close to an area the Russians like to target and the explosions make my building shake,” Andrii, a 35-year-old lorry driver sitting enjoying a cigarette with his friend Leonard in central Kyiv, tells TVP World. “But I stay, and I no longer go to the basement. You just have to say ‘Okay, this is life, you have to adapt.’ It’s not like you’re happy to live with it, but that is life.” Leonard says he was more scared in 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, buts adds that the intensity of the attacks forces him to appreciate the time he has and embrace a carpe-diem approach to life. “I’m happy that I wake up each morning,” he says. “I’m happy to enjoy the day, and that’s the main thing.” Later the same day in a bar in the city center Alona and Vlad, a 30-something couple with children aged two and seven, queue to buy cocktails as they enjoy a night out with friends. Despite the war, people still want to have fun; a Latin American band keeps the party going. The bar, famed for its Latin American vibes and music, is packed despite the strong possibility of an air-raid alert sounding, and remains crowded until guests leave en-masse not long after 11 pm to comply with the 12 am curfew. “We did have reservations about coming out tonight, it can be dangerous, but we can’t stay at home any longer,” says Alona as she waits to be served. “We’ve even had conversations about ‘not coming back’ if we go out. But you can’t live at home all the time. You can’t live underground. There has to be more to life than that.” Both say they intend to stay in Kyiv over winter come what may, but for others the forthcoming season has become an ominous cloud on the horizon. Russia is expected to launch an intensive blitz on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that could exceed that of last winter’s campaign. Back then the attacks caused significant damage and led to lengthy power cuts that left people without electricity as the country endured weeks of sub-zero temperatures. The prospect of something worse happening this winter could grind down the resolve of Kyiv’s residents. While Alona and Vlad plan to stay, other families might leave for another part of the country or a place close enough to Kyiv to commute but with its own sources of electricity and heat. But winter remains months off, and for now Kyiv’s citizens appear intent of getting on with their lives as best they can; maintaining a normal existence, not just for their sanity but also as an act of defiance to Russian aggression. “The more the genocidal approach Putin has towards Ukrainians, the more resilience we are showing,” says Natalia. “This is how it works. The dictator wants us to change our plans and behavior; to surrender. Nobody is going to give up. Nobody is going to take his terms and conditions. That’s it.” TVP World is Poland's first English-language channel where you can find our guest interviews, world news from the Polish perspective and the latest news from the CEE region.