kyiv winks at normality by resuming online education in schools and universities, but shields its monuments because “the Russians will return”
While the delegations from Ukraine and Russia meet in Turkey to continue the negotiation process, a group of volunteers fills sandbags in kyiv’s Mykhailivska square and begins to stack them around the monument of Princess Olga. The Department of Conservation of Artistic Assets of the City Council works against the clock to protect the most important artistic works of a city that has an army of volunteers that works from seven in the morning to eight in the afternoon, the hours in which there is no curfew.
“Princess Olga is one of the key figures in our history. She was the first woman to come to power and reach the level of a saint in our church,” says Boris, a young lawyer who had never done physical work in his life and whose hands now ache from carrying sacks so much. , so he takes a break while waiting for some gloves to be brought to him. Boris, like the rest of the volunteers, does not want to hear about a negotiation with Russia because “his word cannot be trusted. Until they withdraw all their troops from Ukraine we should not have such a dialogue.”
The talks in Turkey now, like those in Belarus before, fall far short of the mood of a population preparing for a long war. They do not listen to the words of Russia, they listen to the heavy bombardments in the last 48 hours north of kyiv, and they load sack after sack so that the monuments suffer the least impact in the event of an attack.
The mayor of neighboring Irpin announced the “liberation” of this city at the gates of kyiv shaken by fighting. But this news did not alter the plans of volunteers like Boris either, since “the Russians may lose ground and be one step further from kyiv, but they will come back.” They work under the sun and to the rhythm of the anti-aircraft siren, which mixes with the bells of the San Miguel monastery.
The streets of the capital are a succession of empty storefronts and closed metal shutters. Only some supermarkets and pharmacies open with reduced hours, until five in the afternoon, and it is perfectly known which ones they are because queues form at their doors. There is no shortage, but you have to be patient with your purchase and know how to choose the places where you can find fresh bread, eggs or meat. The fresh fish, which used to be imported, is history and so is the alcohol. In this case, because the dry law imposed by the authorities since the outbreak of the war is still in force.
Go ahead
Impossible to speak of normality in the midst of the uncertainty that has been established in the life of the Kievites. However, the authorities try to adopt measures that help the population to move forward. Primary and secondary schools resumed remote classes with the aim of “distracting children from the war” and giving them “psychological support”, according to the head of the local Administration, Valentyn Mondryivsky. Teachers have been asked not to burden students with too much work so as not to add more anxiety to their situation.
The universities have already been operating online for several days, as is the case with Borys Grinchenko, where Yuliia Pidipryhora teaches classes. With a degree in Spanish Philology, Pidipryhora has more than eighty students who, due to the war, are divided between towns in western Ukraine, the area of the country far from the fighting, Poland, Italy or Spain. «The Russian invasion forced us to stop completely for two weeks, but then we began to prepare to return to distance education. We have the previous experience of the pandemic and our own program developed by the university. We are prepared », affirms this teacher, who does not plan to leave kyiv because she feels « protected by the Army ». “I don’t have to submit to the whims of a crazy leader,” she maintains.
As with the volunteers who work to shield Princess Olga in Mykhailivska Square with sandbags, Pidipryhora also does not trust a negotiation with Russia and thinks that “they have not been able to reach kyiv for 33 days, but I have no doubt that they will return to try it They will attack again with all their might.” The unity of the Ukrainians to face the invaders is proportional to the distrust in the word of Moscow and that is why each day that passes is one more of preparation for when the war reaches these streets. When the time comes, Princess Olga will still stand and the Kievites think that she will protect them, as they have done with her statue.
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