- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Guardians maul Tigers, miracle Mets rally in MLB series openers
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
Invasion or not, Ukraine's economy is already paying price
In his open-plan office in the centre of Kyiv, tech executive Dmytro Voloshyn lists off the tricky questions he's dealt with over the last weeks as fears have soared over a possible Russian invasion.
What will happen if things escalate? What to do with foreign staff? What will happen if martial law is declared? What if the banking system collapses? What if the internet gets cut?
"We've basically had to prepare a contingency plan with answers to all of these questions," he told AFP, showing a chart on his laptop detailing different options for different scenarios.
Preply, the company co-founded by Voloshyn in 2013, bills itself as one of the main online platforms connecting language students to teachers across the world. It employs some 400 people in Kyiv and Barcelona.
With its sleek office design, plants creeping up the walls, cafe for employees, it looks like a Silicon Valley start-up and is considered one of the successes of Ukraine's high-tech sector.
But like the rest of the Ukrainian capital it is currently living a strange double life. Work is going on as normal, people are carrying on with everyday tasks, and nothing seems out of the ordinary.
At the same time -- as Western leaders warn about the threat from Moscow's troops massed on the border -- some people are bracing for the worst.
According to a survey by the European Business Association, which includes many multinationals operating in Ukraine, 40 percent of its members have already prepared emergency plans and 40 percent intend to do so.
"We have a plan, but we don't execute it because we are very confident the situation will stay as it is," Voloshyn, 34, says.
Voloshyn points out that Ukrainian businesses, like the broader population, have got used to living in a state of heightened alert since the Kremlin seized Crimea in 2014 and began fuelling a separatist conflict in the east that has killed over 13,000 people.
"We are not panicking because we know that this situation lasts for eight years already for us," he says.
"It was always that kind of tension here in Ukraine, and now it's more immediate and it escalates obviously, but we are not in a panic mode."
In fact, the crisis in 2014 spurred his company on. It pushed them to grow the business abroad as Ukraine's economy melted down and they sought to protect themselves from the turbulence.
- Weak currency, inflation -
The risk of a Russian invasion, which Moscow denies it is plotting, has not yet caused such catastrophic consequences as it did back then.
But it is already having a very real impact, freezing projects and scaring off some investors.
The central bank has lowered its growth forecast for 2022 to 3.4 percent from 3.8 percent.
It has also had to spend more than $1 billion since the beginning of the year to keep the local currency, the hryvnia, afloat as worried investors have moved money out of the country.
Despite that, the currency has still fallen to its lowest level in four years, fuelling inflation and undermining the purchasing power of households in one of Europe's poorest countries.
The situation has pushed President Volodymyr Zelensky to try to counter some of the more alarmist warnings coming from the West, insisting the priority was to stabilise the economy rather than stir "panic".
For Sofya Donets, an economist at investment firm Renaissance Capital, Ukraine is currently in a stronger position than in 2014 to withstand financial pressure.
It has more than doubled its reserves and is due an influx of Western assistance, with the European Union pledging a further 1.2 billion euros and talks ongoing to unlock new funds from the International Monetary Fund.
"However, this only works to smooth the effect of the prolonged turbulence, but not the full-scale military conflict," she said.
- 'Permanent threat' -
Currently unable to borrow on international markets, the Ukrainian state remains dependant on its international donors.
The government complains the country is suffering from a geopolitical situation beyond its control despite economic "fundamentals" that it insists are solid.
"We have been living since 2014 in a state of permanent threat from Russia, and now this is becoming news to the world," Finance Minister Sergiy Marchenko said in an interview with the Ekonomichna Pravda website.
"Tension cannot increase permanently," he insisted in a bid to reassure.
In the meantime, companies like Voloshyn's are getting ready.
But even if the worst does not happen, economists warn that the spike in tensions further dents the county's longer-term prospects.
"The risk premium for doing business in Ukraine has certainly increased," Lilit Gevorgyan, an economist at IHS Markit.
"This risk perception will not significantly come down unless tangible progress is made between Ukraine and Russia to solve the conflict. Chances of the latter are slim."
C.Garcia--AMWN