The story of how a small coffee shop in Chernihiv region became a symbol of revival after the occupation: from explosions to supporting each other.
The day turned out sunny and frosty. With fingers stiff from the cold, we open the coffee shop door. Vladyslava’s smiling and welcoming face appears before our eyes. The woman offers coffee and invites us to warm up and rest.
Vladyslava talks a little about her family business in the village of Mykhailo-Kotsyubynske, in the Chernihiv region. It became not just an opportunity to ensure financial stability, but also to unite young people and the community as a whole. She talks about interesting items in the assortment, about clients’ gastronomic preferences. She commutes to the village daily from Chernihiv, where she lives with her family.
Warning and the first days of the war
“I remember February 22,” Vladyslava recalls. “My sister’s husband works at customs, so he warned that an attack might occur. And two days later, he wrote to us: ‘Take the children and run.’ Within a few hours, tanks were moving on the outskirts of Chernihiv,” the woman recalls.
Vladyslava’s family decided to move to the private sector, where there was a basement. It served as a shelter for the first month of the war. Food quickly ran out. The woman recalls long queues and empty shelves in stores.
“When it hit [стадіон — ред.] Gagarin, where we were nearby, the children felt the worst. My three-year-old nephew got scared after the explosions. Because of this, his acetone level rose, and he stopped eating and drinking,” says Vladyslava. At the regional hospital, there were no medications left at that time. Doctors recommended evacuating the child from the city as soon as possible for urgent treatment, where special IV drips were needed. “Two days before the bridge over the Desna was blown up, we left the city. At the end of March…”, the woman recalls with sadness.
The woman worked at a school, her husband at the local collective farm.
Dangerous path to Kyiv
The exit from Chernihiv was like a plot of a tense thriller. Vladyslava and her family carefully chose their exit routes. The bridge across the Desna was mined, and the roads, they said, were too. Volunteers warned that evacuation vehicles were periodically shelled. They helped lay out the safest (if there could be one) route. Due to numerous detours, the journey to the capital took four and a half hours.
“We’re driving, and there are no flags at the checkpoint,” the woman recalls with a trembling voice. “We wondered, are they ours or not? We kept moving, what else could we do? Fortunately, they were our guys; they even offered us candy,” she smiles.
In Kyiv, there was a huge difference. “There were supermarkets, equipped military personnel… After a month under occupation, we looked at it like it was another world.”
The child fell ill on the way. The family sought help at the first hospital they encountered on their path. Since the patients and staff had been evacuated, Vladyslava searched for a long time for someone to turn to. The on-duty doctor who remained in the hospital provided the child with emergency care, administered an IV drip, and supplied free medications for further treatment on the road.
First night without sirens
In western Ukraine, they found refuge in a simple village house. Only there, for the first time in a month, did they take off their outerwear and their shoes. However, even in relative safety, the feeling of anxiety and the fear of explosions did not leave them. On the first night, they woke up in terror at the sound of a passing train. It turned out that the family had settled near the railway tracks. Since they arrived late in the evening, they had not paid attention to the local area. Vladyslava’s family lived in the house for some time. The woman recalls this period with a feeling of gratitude for the shelter.
Return to Chernihiv
In April, when the RF troops withdrew, Vladyslava returned home. «It was very sad in my soul. The streets were quiet. There were no people. But what was most striking was how everything was blooming. ‘Zelenbud’ had planted tulips, but no one noticed them then,» the woman recalls her emotions. «It was as if it was spring, everything was blooming, flourishing, but every local here lived in their own February.»
The heroine’s sister and her children remained in western Ukraine, while Vladyslava began to rebuild her life in Chernihiv.
With special warmth, the woman remembers her mother, who did not leave.
«My mother worked as the head of a kindergarten. She even lived there during the shelling and said: «If I leave, everything will be looted and destroyed.»
«She kept things in order,» Vladyslava proudly recounts.
From Coffee to Unity: The Story of a New Beginning
Today, Vladyslava has not only rebuilt her life but also helps others. «In Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske, all establishments closed during the war,» the woman recounts. «There’s no place for young people to have coffee, to meet each other.» So she decided to open a coffee shop-confectionery, which has now become a friendly hub for the community. This place is not just about coffee, but also about support.
«We constantly ask people what they want. If someone orders lavender lemonade or pumpkin spice coffee — we make it. We support trends. If they want products from Europe — we organize appropriate shelves with their request fulfilled. The most important thing now is to unite and support each other,» says Vladyslava.
Her story is a symbol of the indomitable spirit and strength of Ukrainians, who, even in the most difficult times, find a way to help, support, renew, and act.
The material was prepared by Iryna Hubar, Kateryna Lavrynets, and Yuriy Shtokalyuk as part of the advanced school ‘Truth Through Stories,’ which is implemented with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).