In Zakarpattia the war still seems far away

Uzhhorod The siren alarm only briefly disturbed the conversation on the restaurant terrace in Uzhhorod. Andri Ljubka checks the news on his cell phone – after all, cities far away from the front are regularly bombed. “Transcarpathia is the safest place in Ukraine,” says the writer, but then about his home region in the extreme south-west of the country. “And sometimes you fight a sense of uselessness.”

The 34-year-old has not written since the beginning of the war. Instead, he collects money and uses it to buy much-needed cars and jeeps, which he drives 1,400 kilometers away to beleaguered Ukrainian troops in Donbass.

Only once did Russian rockets hit Zakarpattia. There are no significant military installations or heavy industry that would make the oblast a target for the Russians. In the center of the regional capital, Uzhhorod, people stroll and drink local beer. There are no patrols and no roadblocks.