Business owners in a Ukrainian front-line city adapt even as 'a missile can come at any moment'
Russia's deadly attack on a beloved pizzeria in eastern Ukraine in June was painful for residents
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — In a city where damaged buildings are everywhere, a destroyed pizzeria stands out as a painful reminder of lives and livelihoods dashed in an instant.
A Russian ballistic missile struck the popular eatery in eastern Ukraine in June, killing 13 people including an award-winning Ukrainian writer and several teenagers. Seven of the victims were staff.
Today, fresh flowers and notes have been placed where the entrance once was. A T-shirt, part of the waitstaff’s uniform, hangs near the makeshift memorial with the inscription “We will never forget.”
“As an entrepreneur, of course, I regret the loss of property, but there’s something that cannot be returned: human lives,” said Dmytro Ihnatenko, the owner of RIA Pizza.
The bombed-out building in Kramatorsk underscores the massive risks for businesses in this front-line city in the Donetsk region. But that has not deterred many other business owners who have reopened their doors to customers in the past year.
The city council estimates there are 50 restaurants and 228 shops now open in Kramatorsk, three times the number open at the same period last year. Most are believed to be existing business that closed in the early days of the war and have reopened.
“We understand that this is a risk, and we are taking it because this is our life,” said Olena Ziabina, chief administrator of the White Burger restaurant in Kramatorsk. “Wherever we are, we need to work. We work here. This is our conscious choice.”
The White Burger chain operated mainly in Donetsk and Luhansk regions before the war. But after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it could reopen only in
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