Kyiv July 21st
The first step when adjusting to a foreign country or posting is to stop thinking of yourself of being “over there”, you just are there. Kyiv’s Soviet history, Cyrillic alphabet and war time vibe don’t make that easy, but it is happening. A good grounding is routine – an apartment, research and writing in the mornings, registering for the government press conferences and monitoring the official government Telegram channels, as well as language lessons and gym membership. My neighbourhood is more than pleasant: the diplomatic quarter, across from the Swedish Embassy, above a cafe and close to a nice park and fashionable shops and restaurants. Kyiv and I are slowly clicking.
But this an alien place. It is not unfriendly. People, when they hear English, or I cannot reply in Ukrainian, are unfailingly polite. But I live in a bubble, much time is spent in the Air BnB apartment, writing. I walk the neighbourhood and try to get a sense of community.
The city has a strange brightness – beautiful and full of people, going about their business but everything is at half speed, like a shadow of what used to be. Kyiv had a near death experience – foreign conquest – and knowledge of that, and the war, hangs over everything. Paris in 1941 was still beautiful, but also probably a city in suspended animation, an un natural state, carrying on through momentum but waiting for the next phase of things to come.
One third of the people in Kyiv have left, most that remain are now a lot poorer. Nice restaurants and bars are open but many will experience business failure and close. Life has returned but it is not a natural state.