Hi, this is Tim Harford, and I'm here to tell you that the first episode of the new season of my podcast, 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy, as well as a brand new podcast called 30 Animals That Made a Smarter. Well, they're both available to download. But please finish listening to this one first, thanks.

Hello and welcome to Business Daily. My name's Ed Butler. Today I am back in Ukraine looking at how the trauma of war is shaping an extraordinary economic situation.

Living in Danjik's utter lawlessness, no security, no guarantee of safety of your property.

You spent a whole day waiting in maddeningly slow lines on a narrow road that bisects a minefield.

In 2018, we caught almost 670 weapons and more than 340 kilograms of drugs at the checkpoints.

Could be helping this territory to survive, but we cannot just let people die.

Yes, you find me in Maripal in the east of Ukraine.

The traffic chugging past a few shops, restaurants and cafes doing casual trade,

but frankly not a great deal.

This is a relatively sleepy port city these days,

getting by despite being just a few

kilometres from what remains an active front line in Ukraine's war with Russian-backed rebels.

We heard last week on the program about the efforts here to keep the economy turning over.

This week, we're looking at what life is now like in those occupied

regions across an active front line.

The war in eastern Ukraine broke out shortly after the Maidan Revolution of 2014.

Russian-speaking rebels appeared in this eastern industrial region soon after.

They demanded a separate state, one that they've effectively now gained,

although at what price?

The BBC's Natalia Antelaba visited Ukraine's second city in Donietz,

just a few months after the occupation began.

And already she was met then with a tale of disillusionment.

...