{"id":1897,"date":"2026-07-20T16:42:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=1897"},"modified":"2026-07-20T16:42:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T16:42:40","slug":"in-one-of-kyivs-most-frequently-bombed-neighborhoods-residents-choose-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=1897","title":{"rendered":"In one of Kyiv\u2019s most frequently bombed neighborhoods, residents choose to stay"},"content":{"rendered":"
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Residents of Kyiv\u2019s historic Lukianivka neighborhood share a dark joke: Russian strikes<\/span> hit the area so frequently, they ought to be issued military service documents as though they are living on the front line of the war<\/span>.<\/p>\n

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Real estate agent Dmytro Zhekov acknowledges the danger up front when he tries to draw prospective renters to one of the Ukrainian capital\u2019s<\/span> most frequently bombed areas. In his sales pitch on social media, he highlights the neighborhood\u2019s many virtues: affordable rents, easy access to the city center, a well-connected metro line and historic landmarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning I tell them, \u2018This is a place in the danger zone. It gets hit regularly. If you are all right with that, then we can see it,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The district includes a Soviet-era weapons plant that has become one of Russia\u2019s most frequent targets in Kyiv, with its roof blackened by repeated strikes. Across the street, the Lukianivka metro station, which gives the neighborhood its name, has been hit<\/span> at least eight times. During air raids, it also serves as a shelter for residents. Craters have become<\/span> a permanent part of the urban landscape.<\/p>\n

Residents no longer ask whether Lukianivka will be hit again, only when. Living in the neighborhood means reopening businesses beside the charred ruins of a market, cutting hair in buildings scarred by shrapnel, moving theater performances underground and choosing to rebuild rather than leave.<\/p>\n

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Between strikes, people sweep up shattered glass, board up blown-out windows and try to carry on. After another Russian missile barrage<\/span> on Sunday, the routine began again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter every attack, I walk down the main street, and it feels like watching a wound widen,\u201d resident Vladyslav Darmohrai said.<\/p>\n

Main thoroughfare traces an ancient trade route<\/h2>\n

Lukianivka\u2019s main thoroughfare, Dehtiarivska Street, follows part of the ancient Via Regia, the medieval trade route that carried merchants into Kyiv for centuries.<\/p>\n

The neighborhood later grew into a working-class district of factories, markets and the Lukianivka prison, whose inmates have included former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was incarcerated for 2\u00bd years<\/span> for striking a gas deal with Russia in a case that was largely viewed as retribution by her political rival, then-President Viktor Yanukovych.<\/p>\n

Successive eras, from the Soviet industrial period to Ukrainian independence<\/span> and, now, the repeated Russian bombardment, have continued to shape the neighborhood, which now includes renters displaced by the war.<\/p>\n

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Ukraine\u2019s first McDonald\u2019s, which opened in Lukianivka in 1997, became an early symbol of that postindependence rebirth. Today, customers eat there beneath a plastic sign permanently warped by the heat of Russian strikes.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s part of our history now,\u201d said historian Kyrylo Stepanets.<\/p>\n

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