They fear a Russian attack is imminent, but soldiers in Ukraine's Odessa took time to buy friends and family flowers for Women's Day on Tuesday even though life in the Black Sea port has been turned upside down.
"I bought flowers, oddly enough, for my mother-in-law and my wife to congratulate them on March 8," said Yuriy, a reservist in Ukraine's Territorial Defence forces, speaking by a street stall selling pots of brightly coloured hyacinths and cyclamen, and bunches of tulips.
