Winning the war. Four inspiring stories about how restaurateurs from Kherson, Mariupol, Kharkiv and Kramatorsk found themselves in Kiev

"And you, my heart, I cannot live without a heart," - written in Ukrainian on one of the walls of the cafe that opened a little over a month ago. Video of the Day "Why was Independence?" - Asks NV correspondent in Nikita, who, together with his girlfriend Tatiana, opened this coffee shop. "Two months of life, in occupation, let us know what freedom is and what independence is," the guy explains, preparing a late with salty caramel.

"Under the occupation you do not have life, and in Ukraine it is, so independence," he adds. Much knows about the occupation of Nikita, because he lived and worked in Kherson earlier. But he was forced to leave the temporarily occupied city. Nikita and Tatiana work in her Kiev institution. In 20 days, they made repairs themselves, even a large wooden table was assembled on their own.

“We were not afraid to take risks, because we knew that the two would stand behind a coffee machine, not someone else. Whatever the cash desk, we will take the lease, it will be for food, ”Nikita says about starting work in the capital. He met Tatiana 6 years ago when both worked in the Kherson cafe. After a year and a half, the couple decided to do something of their own. And they turned well: four of their own institutions opened in Kherson. Planned to expand further.

But the war came and Kherson was occupied very quickly by the Russians. Two months after the start of a full -scale invasion of Nikita and Tatiana tried to work in their hometown, but it became more and more difficult. "A catastrophe began with products," the guy explains. Cafes have agreed to buy from the peasants from the cow, but the price of coffee beans took off 5 times.