TOPSHOT – A demonstrator holds a placard during an action dubbed #SayNOtoPutin in Kyiv on January 9, 2022. (Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
The streets of Ukraine's capital were lined with snow and customers waiting for a morning pastry on Saturday, with the city's residents and leaders maintaining a determined calm even as the United States voiced mounting alarm about a Russian invasion.
A long procession of local residents stood outside a popular café, weekend shoppers milled between well-stocked aisles, and children played soccer and shouted on a neighborhood court.
The U.S. fears the Ukrainian capital may be seized within the first few days of a Russian invasion, which it now says may be increasingly imminent. It is evacuating most staff from its embassy in Kyiv and urging its citizens to leave immediately.
But the city's residents have lived with the reality of Russia's threats for years and kept on even as conflict has raged in the country's east since 2014, when the Kremlin annexed Crimea and backed pro-Moscow separatists.
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