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https://www.wsj.com/articles/bracing-for-long-conflict-kyiv-returns-to-near-normality-with-theaters-and-dance-parties-11659000601

Bracing for Long Conflict, Kyiv Returns to Near Normality, With Theaters and Dance Parties

Residents of Ukraine’s capital strive to resume lives put on hold by the Russian invasion, despite curfews and missile strikes

Ukrainians danced at a recent rave in Kyiv, held during the day because of a night-time curfew and with part of the proceeds sent to help the military.

By Yaroslav Trofimov

| Photographs by Manu Brabo for The Wall Street Journal

July 28, 2022 5:30 am ET

KYIV, Ukraine—Opera singer Oleksandr Melnychuk picked up a shotgun shortly after Russian tanks rolled to Kyiv’s outskirts in February, joining a territorial defense battalion to protect northern approaches to the Ukrainian capital.

The city of some 3.5 million emptied, with antitank barriers blocking the streets and artillery cannonades keeping remaining residents awake at night. Kyiv’s opera and ballet theater was shut down, as were all restaurants, bars, museums, shopping malls and pretty much everything other than pharmacies and supermarkets.