“No one will ever understand the pain of these people.” What is life like in Lviv in the shadow of war?

In Lviv, you can hear Christmas songs from time to time, but also the last farewells of those who are said goodbye to heroes on the streets. You can also see and hear those who, despite the ongoing war, started reconstruction.

It was a September morning, before six o'clock, when seven people died in a bombed tenement house, including a mother and three daughters. Irina, the midwife, also died – her husband survived, although he was right next to her. Now he lives alone in an almost empty tenement house.

– I wake her up and say: they're shooting, leave. My wife left, I was already there behind the wall – says Irina's widower. Irina died on the spot, in an instant.

The neighbor above also died as a result of the gunfire. He died for two weeks, injured by shrapnel that penetrated his body. Irina's husband still finds such shards at home today.

The exterior is being renovated. The reconstruction of one of the tenement houses dating back to the times of the Second Polish Republic will be financed by Poland.

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The center of Lviv is a beautiful city, even if a bit neglected in places. Everything works, except the basements are covered with bags. Sometimes there is no electricity. Saints in stained glass windows are buried behind sheet metal or plywood. Unholy carvings are also covered up to survive until the day of victory.

In different cities, time is measured differently, somewhere the bugle call is played, bells are ringing, someone is singing. In Lviv, funerals start at 11 a.m.

– This is what every day looks like in Lviv. One funeral ceremony takes place before lunch, and the other – after lunch. 50,000 inhabitants of Lviv are currently at the front. Almost every family delegated someone. More than a thousand inhabitants of Lviv have died in the war, says Andriy Sadowy, mayor of Lviv.

The people of Lviv said goodbye to Wład and Andriy. Andrij was almost 50 years old, so apart from his family, his colleagues from work said goodbye to him. Wladimir, almost a generation younger, was accompanied by his friends from high school. This is their moment of glory before they leave for eternity.

– The city organizes everything. The beginning is a conversation with the family and this terrible news. There are psychologists, two ceremonies and a walk to the cemetery, says Andriy Sadowy.

It's the middle of the day. People from Lviv stand and kneel, but they will soon get up from their knees, they will go to school, to work, even on a trip.

– This group consists of people from occupied areas, those where fighting is ongoing. From Zaporozhye, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. They now live in the Lviv region in various places and from time to time such trips are organized for those interested. Today we are in Lviv for a few hours, says Valerij, a resident of Bucha.

– Nothing will kill this city, it is a bit magical. On the one hand there is war, on the other there is our everyday reality. Even when there was a plague, people lived and danced because we didn't know what would happen tomorrow – says Andrzej, a guide in Lviv.

– There must be holidays for children. There is a Christmas tree. The city is alive, children go to school and students go to university. Sometimes sirens sound. It's very difficult psychologically. No one will explain to you what it means for a child who has lost his father. Inside, everything is falling apart. No one will ever understand the pain of these people, sums up Andriy Sadowy.

How much the world is changing there, how uncertain tomorrow may be, can be seen even on the map. On the satellite map, the Campus Martius is still a green meadow. Currently it is a cemetery.

The war cemeteries we know so far are usually rows of crosses or plaques, often nameless. The modern ones are very specific, they have faces, they have mascots, they have benches next to them and mothers on them. On one of them sits Wład's mother, who told us about her son's life: when he was one and a half years old and was already running away from his father around the city, when he was three and was spanked in kindergarten, and how he was doing at school.

Then there was the whole story of my son in the army, where they did not want to accept him because he had flat feet, but when the war broke out, he volunteered. How he gave his friend his camp bed and how they praised him until suddenly two bullets hit him in the neck. Vlad died.

There are hundreds of such places throughout Ukraine, and probably every modern cemetery has its own war sector.

How many soldiers died is still not information that is made public. The number of injured is also secret. It is known that in one of the hospitals in Lviv, a special wing is being established to rehabilitate soldiers, and only three thousand of them have already been helped there.

– We want them not only to be as healthy and fit as possible, but also to return to society as much as possible, which is why we involve the family and various specialists in rehabilitation – says Oleg Bilański, head of the “Niezłomni” Rehabilitation Center.