Kyiv’s volunteers prepare a reception for the Russians

plays a snatch of a Cossack military march and then points his clarinet like a gun. At 63, he has been told he is too old to fight. So, he says, “I do what I can do to help our armed forces.” On March 9th he took part in a brief, morale-raising concert for Ukrainian television on Maidan or Independence Square, the heart of Kyiv. Under a lowering sky and occasional flurries of snow, a dapper, goateed conductor raced through polkas, waltzes and a rousing version of the national anthem. Two weeks after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, its capital remains braced for attack, defiant but nervous.