How a front-line city became Ukraine’s romantic capital

livemint.com:

Read more of our recent coverage of the Ukraine war The 13:38 express from Kyiv pulls into Kramatorsk, welcomed by a sea of flowers and outstretched arms. Of the passengers who aren’t soldiers on their way to nearby Bakhmut, almost all on board are the wives and girlfriends of those already fighting. Viktoria, 27, and Karolina, 29, have travelled to see their men Alexander, 32, and Vladimir, 33, who are waiting for them on the platform.

A day before, Alexander and Vladimir were fighting fierce battles in Bakhmut. Now they have swapped their rifles for roses. The couples embrace silently, and depart for rented apartments on the outskirts.

Kramatorsk, an industrial city of 150,000 before the latest invasion, is reinventing itself as a romantic destination. On the front line since 2014, Russia’s renewed onslaught in February 2022 brought its very existence into question. Within a few weeks, Kramatorsk’s factories shut down and most of its civilian population fled.

Now the city is profoundly militarised. But it exudes a new kind of energy as a romantic hub for soldiers who aren’t allowed to travel far from fighting in Bakhmut and Avdiivka. There may be no hotels—they closed after one was bombed last summer—but a network of apartments, rentable by the day or hour, fills the gap.

The city’s tourist infrastructure—flower shops, gift shops, restaurants and cafés—has prospered. Artyom, an estate agent, says he has done good trade ever since the Kyiv train started running again in October. Some 80% of his business is now short-term lets to soldiers and their partners; the rest is long-term accommodation for refugees.