DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, HOST:
In Ukraine, for many business owners, this has become a familiar sound...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Inaudible).
(SOUNDBITE OF BROKEN GLASS BEING SWEPT)
KURTZLEBEN: ...Broken glass. After a night of Russian drone and missile attacks, shop owners are left to clean up the next morning.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STANISLAV ZAVERTAILO: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KURTZLEBEN: In May, Stanislav Zavertailo, co-owner of a popular Kyiv-based cafe called Zavertailo, posted this video on social media. In it, his entire storefront is in ruins, shattered glass all over. He says, we will clean up, maybe things won't be so bad. And eventually, he did clean up. When I spoke with Zavertailo recently, he told me the cafe was up and running within a few days.
ZAVERTAILO: All my team come to the cafe and help me to clear - all team, all. All our staff from all company or from central manufacturing, offices, marketing, sales, logistics team, all - they come and try to help and to do our the best.
KURTZLEBEN: I mean, things have not calmed down since May. I know you know this. I mean, there have been deadly bombings in Kyiv over the last few days. What goes through your mind when the city is under bombardment? And how are you holding up?
ZAVERTAILO: It's hard to answer because first of all, the biggest problem, that some people die after these attacks, and this is the main problem - that Russia tried to destroy just normal citizen life, city life, and they try to kill just normal people who sleep in their homes. So this is the main problem. So if you wake up in the morning with your family and you are alive, you must do all the best from you to support the people who have the problem after this.
KURTZLEBEN: I'm curious. Where are you right now? I mean, you're in Kyiv. Are you at one of your cafes? Where are you?
ZAVERTAILO: Yes. We just opened new cafe, our - the biggest cafe. And now we're in the shelter because a few minutes ago, it was a bomb alert. And...
KURTZLEBEN: Oh, wow.
ZAVERTAILO: ...So we are going to the shelter. But in the early morning, I come at 7 o'clock in the morning and bake the croissant because some of my workers, they can't come to the work because the metro is not working when a bomb alert is ongoing.
KURTZLEBEN: You know, I almost hesitate to ask you about business when, you know, lives are on the line, but I am curious. You know, it's the fifth year of the war with no end in sight. How are businesses like yours coping through all of this?
ZAVERTAILO: For me, it's a little bit hard to answer because what I will answer to you, to listen like I'm crazy, you know? Because we are family-owned business, me and my wife, and we open this cafe before the warring. And more than 10 years, we try to make the best desserts in Ukraine. And after the full invasion starts, we decide to stay in Ukraine with all our family, with three children, and try to live, OK, and make the same good croissant and propose for our guests the best service, if it possible, even after bad nights.
We have, like, tradition. After bad nights, we support our guests and present for them small sweets, like small eclairs, for all guests who visit our cafe in the early morning after the rockets attack. It's like small help or small gift or small support to feel some normal life, not crazy life after the bad nights.
KURTZLEBEN: You know I hear you talking about that...
ZAVERTAILO: Sorry for my English because I'm - don't sleep all night today, yeah, all night. It was a lot of explosions. I take my daughter and hold their ears for them. They don't hear the explosions, yeah? And it was in all night. In the early morning, I go and make the best croissant of my life, believe me. So I feel a little bit sleepy. So maybe, yes.
KURTZLEBEN: I fully understood. But I mean, hearing you talk about, you know, making these little sweets for all of your - the customers after a bombardment, I'm wondering about how you're thinking about the future. Once this war ends, whenever that is, what are your hopes for your business and just for yourselves?
ZAVERTAILO: I don't think about it because I really - real feeling person. And when the war will stop, will end, and this time, I will start happy. But now I don't want to think about it because I want to - I dream about that all my workers or all my friends come back from the army, and we will hold up together, and we will celebrate it - you know, to kiss everybody. So I don't want to think about this now because if you are - think about it and after half year, one year, two years, you don't receive this, you may to give up. But I prefer to walk on this road, not to stop, not to rest - just walk every day this road to the - our victory.
KURTZLEBEN: That is Stanislav Zavertailo, a cafe owner in Kyiv, Ukraine. Stanislav, thank you for your time, and please stay safe.
ZAVERTAILO: Thank you. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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