JRL NEWSWATCH: “In the pursuit of small pleasures, Kyiv residents exercise resistance” – Financial Times
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“Vladimir Putin wants to trash the country, so the fact that daily life continues is a minor triumph.”
“… Western-gifted air defence systems have played a key role in securing … fragile normality. … Gepard, Iris-T and Patriot air defence systems take down … drones and missiles of Russia’s almost nightly barrages. The biggest threat … is falling debris. … That same tentative return to normal life is also … eviden[t] in Odesa. Its Black Sea beaches reopened in late August …. It makes for a disturbing dichotomy, especially when compared with the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion, when Russian warships came so close that Odesa residents could see them ….
Russians were advancing, millions were fleeing …. Today, Ukrainian lives are more fractured. Tens of thousands are fighting on the frontline … [E]veryone knows someone … who has been killed or wounded. More than 6mn refugees … live abroad. Yet inside this giant country, millions of people lead apparently normal lives, going to work, to the beach, … nightclubs and … bars. … With U.S. aid to Ukraine potentially in jeopardy, it’s a question that goes to the heart of what the country is fighting for. ….”