EVERY BUSINESS in Ukraine has a reference point. For Mykhailo Travetsky, a farmer in Pryluky, it was the first six weeks of the all-out invasion. As a Russian column stalled on a nearby highway, his farm became no-man’s land. Locals fought gun battles to keep the Russians off it. Shells whizzed overhead. And Mr Travetsky milked his cows twice a day in body armour, automatic rifle cocked at his side.

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