With a sweep of her arm, the receptionist pointed out the hotel’s amenities: breakfast room, gym, lobby bar — and a basement shelter for use during air raids, with hot and cold running water, ventilation, and chairs.
Kyiv has adapted during three years of full-scale war with Russia, absorbing existential threats and turning them into everyday routine. But even for a city inured to hostile forces, it’s been a head-spinning 10 days.
Ukraine is reeling from the abrupt U.S. switch under President Donald Trump, from the staunchest of allies to what some now see as an appeaser of Moscow. Foreign diplomats in the capital were struggling to keep up: a deal to hand the U.S. control over natural resources became a public quarrel in the White House and then the withdrawal of American support.