Despite the roar of guns, life near the front line is slowly returning to normal!

Victoria Miroshnichenko has reopened her toy store in the city of Kramatorsk, close to the front lines in eastern Ukraine, despite daily bombing nearby. “It’s a little scary, but we’re getting used to it,” she says from behind the counter. The owner of a shop that sells dolls, bicycles and other children’s toys claims that her work has been suspended for about three months and she does not receive adequate government subsidies. His business and many other activities were closed in Kramatorsk after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th. But in the past few weeks, shops have reopened and people have returned to the city in Donbass in eastern Ukraine. Miroshnichenko adds: “There are about 300 houses on my street, most of the residents have left. Now almost all of them are back.” The pulse of life is returning to Kramatorsk, a large city in the center of what remains of the Ukrainian-controlled territories of Donbass, despite Russian artillery shelling of neighboring cities of Slavyansk, Seversk and Bakhmut. But according to Oleg Malimonenko, who has just opened his restaurant, people have no choice but to go home. “99 percent of the time they come back because they need to eat well and pay their bills,” said the 54-year-old. Malemonenko hopes customers, including some Ukrainian soldiers roaming the city, will flock to his restaurant. As for Natalya Kirichenko, soldiers are a valuable source of income. A store employee says that the military visits the store all the time and buys most of the goods, especially knives and daggers.