No More ‘Have a Nice Day’: Lviv Learns to Live With War

LVIV, Ukraine — When warfare got here to Ukraine in February, Helen Polishchuk made some changes within the six-story bar she manages in central Lviv.

The Mad Bars House in Lviv’s historic central sq. stayed open, however served espresso and scorching meals as a substitute of alcoholic drinks. They turned off the rock music. And as displaced Ukrainians started pouring into the town from locations devastated by Russian assaults a whole bunch of miles away, she had directions for the wait workers.

“When guests leave the restaurant we normally say, ‘Have a nice day,’” she stated. Instead she advised them they might say one thing else, like “Glory to Ukraine,” or “We wish you blue skies.”

“Because to say ‘have a nice day’ in this period is stupid,” stated Ms. Polishchuk, 33.

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the finish of February, Lviv, a historic metropolis simply 40 miles from Poland, was a in style European vacationer vacation spot, with 2.5 million guests a 12 months and the most important jazz pageant in Eastern Europe.

Now, as a substitute of vacationers, there are displaced Ukrainians fleeing the war-torn east of the nation. Lviv and its residents are studying to stay with what most now consider can be many months of battle, if not years.

Several Russian airstrikes have focused infrastructure right here, together with a rocket assault on a army coaching base final month that killed greater than 30 individuals. Air-raid sirens warning of Russian fighter jets breaching the airspace sound a number of instances a day. This small metropolis, although, remains to be removed from the energetic preventing that has devastated whole cities within the east of Ukraine.

The principal problem for Lviv has been to survive a wartime financial system and handle the flood of displaced, traumatized people who find themselves swelling the town’s inhabitants.

“We have learned to live in wartime,” stated the town’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, who has lately lifted some municipal restrictions, together with permitting bars and eating places to promote wine and beer, though not arduous alcohol.

Mr. Sadovyi, a former businessman, stated that six months earlier than the Russian invasion, he tasked metropolis officers with discovering a means to preserve water provides flowing if the electrical energy failed. They began shopping for diesel turbines, in addition to stockpiling medical provides, and topping up blood banks.

“If I had not been bracing my city for this situation, we would be in a catastrophe right now,” Mr. Sadovyi, wearing a black hoodie and black sneakers, stated in an interview within the Nineteenth-century Viennese-style City Hall. His workplace’s expansive stone balcony ignored the market sq., the place displaced kids shrieked with laughter and chased large cleaning soap bubbles blown by a avenue performer.

Mr. Sadovyi stated that civilians fleeing the preventing began coming into Lviv inside hours of the invasion — 60,000 of them per day for the primary three weeks. Now, with a new Russian advance anticipated, about 10,000 a day are arriving.

While many are heading throughout the border to Poland and different European international locations, about 200,000 have remained, double the quantity the town administration was anticipating and virtually one third the town’s prewar inhabitants of 700,000.

Those with cash are renting flats or staying in inns. But tens of 1000’s extra are in shelters, depending on help. The Polish authorities has donated container properties for 1,000 individuals which are being arrange in a metropolis park. Others are being channeled from Lviv to different communities in Western Ukraine.

“This is a huge strain on our city,” stated Mr. Sadovyi, 53. “Basically we have another city within our city.”

The warfare has sparked outstanding patriotism, and if some native residents notice that they will now not discover tables at their favourite cafes or eating places as a result of they’re stuffed with displaced individuals, they have a tendency not to complain. Guides lead displaced households on free excursions of the town. Passengers on the vacationer trolley leaving City Hall usually are not foreigners today however Ukrainians.

It makes for an odd juxtaposition. A major variety of the troopers dying on the entrance are from Western Ukraine, and there are common funerals in church buildings within the metropolis heart. On a latest day, the sobbing kin of a steelworker and his manufacturing facility colleagues stood exterior a cathedral with wreathes of flowers.

Around the perimeters, longtime residents try to protect some semblance of prewar life.

The Lviv National Opera lately resumed restricted occasions, with snippets of ballet and choir performances. The variety of tickets offered is restricted to the capability of the constructing’s bomb shelter, about 250 individuals. At the primary efficiency, an air-raid siren sounded, sending viewers members and dancers down to the shelter earlier than resuming the present.

“We reopened because we received so many calls and emails from people,” stated Ostap Hromysh, the opera’s worldwide relations supervisor. The messages had been apologetic, saying “of course we understand there is a war,” however asking if they’d performances anyway.

“If people day by day are faced with sad news about death, about blood, about bombs, they need to feel other emotions,” he stated.

At the Mad Bars House, Ms. Polishchuk stated they deliberate to open a rooftop terrace subsequent week, maybe with nonalcoholic cocktails in addition to wine and beer. They are bringing again extra of their authentic 111-person workers.

She stated the bar, which in regular instances has a dance ground and serves more and more potent drinks as patrons ascend its six tales, is dropping cash, however is dedicated to remaining open. On Sunday afternoon, the primary and second flooring of the bar had been full.

The administration has changed the traditional rock entertaining beer drinkers on the ground-floor bar earlier than the warfare with Ukrainian songs, although on the ground serving wine to prospects at tables, Frank Sinatra croons.

“We don’t want to pretend that nothing has happened, we understand that it’s a war,” Ms. Polishchuk stated. “But we want to create an atmosphere of somewhere safe.”

On the menu, borscht, the beet soup that had few takers earlier than the warfare is now the most important vendor. Ms. Polishchuk stated it was patriotism and stress. “We understand that people want comfort foods,” she stated.

“Have a nice day” will not be the one factor that feels off today.

“This is not the time for carrot juice and green salads,” Ms. Polishchuk stated.