Kyiv is by far the best-defended Ukrainian city. The cafés are open and bustling, the supermarkets full, and cultural life is, if anything, more active than it was before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, so much so that a significant number of new bookstores and cultural venues have opened and seem to be thriving. Despite the air alert sirens that go off multiple times warning of incoming Russian missiles or drones, which punctuate daily life in Kyiv, reminding one