You're reading: Agence France-Presse: Luxury thrives amid misery in Ukraine’s war-torn east

Donetsk (Ukraine) – Fancy restaurants and trendy boutiques stand just blocks away from stuffy bomb shelters where survivors hunker down in eastern Ukraine’s pro-Russian rebel capital city of Donetsk.

Some parts of the heart of the former Soviet republic’s coal mining country make it hard to believe that a 29-month war has been raging around them at the cost of more than 9,600 lives and an even deeper rift in ties between Moscow and the West.

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