Luxury thrives in ‘Ukraine’

DONETSK, Ukraine: Fancy restaurants and trendy boutiques stand just blocks away from stuffy bomb shelters where survivors hunker down in eastern Ukraine´s pro-Russian rebel capital city of Donetsk.

Some parts of the heart of the former Soviet republic´s coal mining country make it hard to believe that a 29-month war has been raging around them at the cost of more than 9,600 lives and an even deeper rift in ties between Moscow and the West.

A man who agreed to identify himself only as Yevgeny opened a barbershop that combines a beauty salon with a high-end pub with expensive wines and spirits just 15 kilometres from where the shells fall.

The biggest challenge for the 36-year-old is not mortar fire but the logistics of delivering cosmetic products to his clients and alcohol to the war zone.