Marina Bondas stands at the window of her Berlin apartment, nervously smoking a cigarette, retelling the grim jokes she heard from a child in eastern Ukraine. Just moments ago she appeared unflappable, speaking frankly and with humor about her violin concerts in the Donetsk Oblast (province) and about her humanitarian charity in Germany. Like many of the citizens of Donbas, Ukraine, and in particular, the children who have come of age during the crisis, Bondas has made a strange peace with the reality of war in her country of origin, negotiating the stretches of unsettling quiet and the hours and days of shelling that follow.
BBC: The music played to drown out a war
A student playing during Violin lesson in Avdiyivka musical school on May 16. 2017
