reportage
Night after night, Russia attacks Ukraine with missiles. Since the war began, many people have barely been able to sleep. This has consequences for health – and also for companies.
Valentyna Masnitschenko is what you would imagine an ambitious and aspiring young entrepreneur to be. She runs and owns a tattoo studio in Kyiv and employs several tattoo masters. Your day is planned, business is running, soldiers get a ten percent discount on their tattoos. A large proportion of customers are military. She proudly shows the large room where two customers are treated at the same time.
It actually comes from Crimea, which has been occupied by Russia for more than ten years. She came to Kyiv alone, is a single parent and built everything on her own. Last night the attack lasted hours. Valentyna looks stunning. She only slept for one to two hours. “Thank God there’s make-up for my face. I’m so tired. I just want to sleep. Actually, all I think about is coffee, coffee, coffee.”
It’s like this almost every night: Shortly after the air alert app sounds around midnight, you hear the air defense system shooting down drones over Kiev. A mixture of rattling, thunder and machine guns. You rarely see anything. If they are rockets, the louder thunder can be heard throughout the city. Everyday life at night in Ukraine.
Damage to productivity?
It’s relatively quiet in Valentyna Masnichenko’s studio. A concentrated silence? Valentyna has an obvious explanation for this. 80 percent of customers are soldiers. “They come and sleep.” They are completely exhausted and use their vacation from the front, often for a day or two, to then come to the tattoo studio. They state their wishes – often they are nationalistic motives – and fall asleep soon afterwards, something they experience every day. Valentyna quickly cleans up the studio and prepares the tattoo beds for the next customers, while a photo shoot takes place in another area of the room.
There are no numbers or statistics on how fatigue from sleepless nights affects Ukraine’s productivity. Visible damage could occur during tattooing if the master makes a mistake. But the master Viktor, who works for Valentyna, just smiles. Yes, he is tired, but he concentrates very much so that he doesn’t make any mistakes that he can’t correct afterwards. “This is our life.”
In Valentyna Masnichenko’s tattoo studio, many customers simply relax.
Tiredness, exhaustion and irritability
There are also other methods to function and earn money in everyday life despite constant stress. On the way home from work we meet Hlib Vyshlinskyj, an economist from the Center for Economic Strategy, at the Osokorky metro station. He’s wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase and has had a long day at work. Last night was loud and restless. But he slept well. “I close the window, turn on the air conditioning and then I don’t hear anything.” That works perfectly. After all, everything in his life revolves around work because his wife has left the country and he currently lives alone. Why does he shield himself like that at night? The answer comes promptly: “So that I can work the next day.”
Everyday life since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression has meant tiredness, exhaustion and irritability for a significant number of people in Kiev. Especially for parents of children. Many people admit this at the first spontaneous answer. Even if you then add in the second sentence in a conversation with the Western journalist: But we’ll manage it. And cafes are actually open, trains are running and craftsmen are working. One goal of these numerous drone nights appears to be to wear down the Ukrainian civilian population. These Russian tactics are leaving their mark.
Everyday life in the Kiev subway: Since the outbreak of the war, the stations have repeatedly served as air raid shelters.
Parents and children are particularly affected
At the same Osokorky metro station on the left side of the river bank, Olena is waiting for the bus. She holds the hand of her daughter Ella, a petite elementary school-aged girl, pale and shy. Mother and daughter are visibly tired now, around 9 p.m. You have just returned from an appointment with a child psychologist. The nights are difficult, says the mother. “The children don’t sleep. And then it’s hard to get up and go to school the next morning.”
At night they move into the hallway, where it is safer: “I hope that it doesn’t hit us, that the debris doesn’t fly in.” It happens that the alarm starts, stops and starts again. “If you then go into the shelter several times a night, you won’t be able to work at all the next day.” In order to function in everyday life, the mother goes into the shelter with her two children less and less often.
Olena, who does not want to give her last name, works as a music teacher. But she finds it difficult to concentrate on work – she is overtired from the sleepless nights of attacks. Ella is almost always quiet. “Ella is in second grade. She hardly speaks. Everything is difficult for her and then there’s the shelling.” The mother looks at her daughter: her children cannot concentrate on school either. “You are tired of this life.”
Constantly keeping track of what’s going on in heaven
Very late in the evening, Valentyna, the owner of the tattoo studio, is preparing for the night. She puts a blanket for her daughter Anja and one for herself on the floor of the walk-in closet. The main thing is that a wall separates it from the windows in the living room. Anja is just six and naturally talks about what happened during the war. “When the missiles fly and the anti-aircraft defense is active, Mom will carry me into the closet. If that happens, I’ll be afraid.” But soon Anja will fall asleep on the floor of the closet.
Valentyna, on the other hand, listens carefully to every noise and constantly looks for current information on Telegram, whether drones or missiles are currently heading towards the city. This can last until morning. On the day she will pull herself together. “In the morning I take sedatives after an exciting night.” Coffee or tea follows, and then she takes Anja to school and drives to her tattoo studio. This war creeps into every crevice of life. It cannot be overlooked – and certainly not ignored.