SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
It was four years ago today when Ukrainian forces freed the frontline city of Kherson from Russian occupation. That did not end the Russian attacks. A popular cafe in Kherson offered a sense of normalcy until that changed this summer. NPR's Joanna Kakissis has the story from southeastern Ukraine.
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JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Cafe 11/11 is named after the date, November 11, 2022, when Ukrainian forces drove Russian troops out of the city of Kherson. The cafe opened shortly after the city was freed, with the motto - the best coffee for free people.
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KAKISSIS: Cafe 11/11 was cozy with an '80s vibe and always busy. Customers sipped matcha lattes while fiddling with Rubik's cubes. We first met owner Oleksii Haiduk there in the spring of last year.
OLEKSII HAIDUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "This cafe is like a symbol," he said, "of what we have experienced and what we continue to experience." After Kherson's liberation, Russian forces retreated across the Dnipro River, regrouping about a mile away from the city.
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KAKISSIS: They destroyed homes and businesses in Kherson using guided bombs and heavy drones. They also navigated small, first-person view, or FPV, drones strapped with explosives to hunt and kill locals.
HAIDUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Haiduk said he worried about his staff of six - all young women. He began to cry as he recounted an attack last year.
HAIDUK: (Speaking Ukrainian, crying).
KAKISSIS: Russians struck a building and a bus station across the street from Cafe 11/11.
HAIDUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "We were here together, just me and the girls," Haiduk said. "Thank God no one was hurt here because across the street, people died." And yet Haiduk remained optimistic. He expanded the kitchen to make burgers and pizzas, and the cafe was always packed. Anastasiia Kravets, a regular there, explained why.
ANASTASIIA KRAVETS: We have a will to survive, will to have independence. It was historically based in our DNA. And it still continues.
KAKISSIS: And then, one night in late August of this year, a heavy Russian drone smashed right into the cafe.
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HAIDUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Haiduk recorded a video showing the cafe's burnt and crushed remains. Ukraine's economy ministry says small- and medium-sized businesses like Cafe 11/11 account for roughly two-thirds of the country's GDP. The sector has lost billions of dollars during Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine. In September, Haiduk made the difficult decision to leave his hometown of Kherson, and he rented space for a new cafe in the city of Mykolaiv about an hour's drive away.
How are you? Nice to see you.
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KAKISSIS: We met Haiduk outside the new location a couple of weeks ago, as air raid sirens blared.
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KAKISSIS: Inside the cafe are comfy booths and exhibits about Kherson. Haiduk says he has been sleeping here to save money.
HAIDUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "I'm in debt," he says. "I'm hoping to scrape together at least a little money and finish up work here." Today, though, was a reason to celebrate. Cafe 11/11 reopened, displaced from its besieged hometown, but still serving coffee for free people. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, reporting from Kherson and Mykolaiv, Ukraine.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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