Voice of Ukraine

From Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv (537th day): The number of Kyiv residents is gradually approaching the pre-war level. There are about 3.2 million residents currently, while before the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia, this figure was 3.6-3.8 million people.

About a year ago, in May 2022, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitaliy Klitschko voiced data that 2.2 million people lived in Kyiv at that time. Thus, over the past year, the actual population of the capital has increased by 1 million people.

According to the mayor of Kyiv, the smallest number of people staying in the capital of Ukraine at the beginning of the invasion, after the mass exodus of women and children, was about 1 million residents.

That one million who stayed in Kyiv could not be seen on the streets much. We all went to the store and back maybe once in a couple of days and stayed home most of the time. The air raids were non-stop, not to mention the artillery cannonade that could be heard from the suburbs of Kyiv where ruzzians were trying to advance. People tried to stay on the same bank of the Dniper river where they lived for fear of bridges being destroyed. Those were the most challenging times of uncertainty and fear.

Now if you came to Kyiv and walked around the city, you might not guess there is war, except at times of air raids when you hear the sirens, public transportation stops, stores and banks close, and some people rush to the bomb shelters. Of course, you will also see anti-tank hedgehogs along the roads, but I guess we are so used to seeing them that we hardly notice them anymore.