There is a long queue to take pictures under the newly blooming magnolias in Fomine park in the center of Kiev. A Ukrainian soldier asks his wife and two children to “smile”. under the smear of purple flowers.

After 51 days of war, Kievans took advantage of Friday, the first sunny day of spring, to stroll through the park or have a drink on the terrace, take a break and have an almost normal life.

Escaped from strollers, scooters and bikes, 43-year-old Nataliya Makrieva is walking arm in arm across the field with her mother and can’t believe it.

“It’s the first time we’re going back to the city center, we wanted to see how the transportation works, to be a little bit with people. Seeing so many people makes me very good,” the veterinarian said.

A soldier lying on a lawn with matching uniform smoking a pipe and looking at the blue sky. It’s 21 degrees and twin twin friends have climbed a blooming tree.

“We are breathing for the first time in more than a month in Irpin and Gostomel and we came here to enjoy the beautiful day,” explains Dmitro Tkatchenko, one of the 40-year-old uniformed twins, a veteran of the 2015 Donbass war.

After three weeks of relative calm, two Russian attacks on Friday and Saturday hit two military complexes near Kyiv. The Kremlin has been threatening to intensify attacks on Kiev for days.

Anti-tank barriers were placed on the roadsides. There are still sandbags and concrete blocks at checkpoints, but most do not have soldiers on guard.

Warning panels no longer broadcast security advice or messages to Russian invaders or feared “infiltrators”, but patriotic videos.

The balance of financial losses in the city remains low. According to officials, 100 buildings were destroyed or hit in Russian attacks between February 24 and March 22, when the last airstrike inside the city took place.

“War has many dimensions, and it’s not just about fighting. Kyiv is undoubtedly still in a state of war,” said 34-year-old Alona Bogatshova, who was the first to go for a walk to “Spritz” on a terrace with her friends. . . .

“But on the other hand, there is so much life and freedom. It is an unnamed, unique situation that we have not experienced yet,” sums up the young woman, who hastened to finish her glass ahead of time.

In Kiev, the sale of alcohol is prohibited after 16:00 and the curfew is in effect from 21:00 to 6 am.

Buying food from home, going to the hairdresser, taking the metro, renting a bike or scooter are still among the things to do in Kiev. Schools, universities, most restaurants and cultural centers remain closed.

The mayor of the city, Vitali Klitschko, urged people who fled the city, where half of its 2.8 million population is estimated, not to return. According to local media, about 50,000 people return to Ukraine’s capital every day.