In Sloviansk, Donetsk Oblast, taxi driver Oleksandr Richak still takes bookings while Russian FPV drones and glide bombs tighten on the city.
The Kyiv Independent follows his August shifts from the near-empty bus station on the OnTaxi app — about 15 jobs a day, ~UAH 3,000 gross before commission and fuel. Passengers include soldiers hunting flats, carers rushing medicine and families with children performing in church as air defence fires. Richak, 42, also does gas-pipeline repairs and survived a Molniya drone blast metres away on 19 August. Wife Nataliia and their daughter later left for Kharkiv Oblast; he can only leave if the gas service relocates. Front lines are about 10km away; he says fear “never leaves you.”