Vlada Ovchinnikova stood posing for her boyfriend at a stall offering mugs of steaming wine, as children rode horses on a brightly lit merry-go-round in front of a giant Christmas tree.

It could be a Hallmark-worthy December scene from any city in Europe.

Except this is Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital under almost nightly air raid alerts, where Russian missiles and drones frequently slam into apartment buildings.