DNIPRO, UKRAINE — Volodymir awoke Monday night just before midnight to an air raid alert. These alerts happen every night in this city of one million in the eastern half of Ukraine, and so residents don’t always rush to bomb shelters, even when it’s just in the basement.

Standing outside his apartment on Tuesday, Volodymir, age 73, told me that he and his wife decided to stay put in this first-floor apartment where they have lived for 50 years.