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TOPIC: life in kyiv

FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Defiance And Resilience, A Year Of Living Dangerously In Kyiv

One year after the Russian invasion, Kyiv has become an international symbol of resistance, also in the way that ordinary life continues, despite air raids and bomb blasts.

KYIV — Bombs at breakfast, jacuzzi at noon. Like many residents of Kyiv, Alina Sugoniako's daily life at the end of January is anything but normal. That Thursday, at dawn, the Russian army fired about 20 missiles onto the Ukrainian capital. The young woman, five months pregnant, takes refuge between the walls of the corridor of her small apartment with her husband, Dmytro.

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They waited there for nearly an hour, their eyes glued to their phones, looking for information on the impact points of the bombs. Then the news falls: one dead and two wounded in the south of the city. The air raid alert faded into the icy sky, and life could try to resume its course.

The couple, who had planned to spend a few hours relaxing in a downtown spa, decided to keep to their schedule.

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