I have been back at home now in Kyiv for the past three weeks and everything feels normal. The city is busy and buzzing and it is hard to believe that this evil war is still raging on. And it feels good, and, well, magical. Yes, there is something extraordinary going on here in Ukraine.

It is indeed like magic. It is not what anyone thought would ever happen. 

The media certainly got it all wrong. Everyone said that Kyiv would fall in three days, and then people went on about how Ukraine would freeze to death over the winter, and how there would be bandits and looting all over the place. Quite the opposite, actually.                                                                               

But of course, it is not normal at all. When the air raid sirens go off, then you know that nothing is the same. People are exhausted and traumatised and, yes, people are dying. Innocent people are being killed. The Russians bomb shopping malls, restaurants, residential buildings, hospitals, schools… It is pure evil.