After losing their home and bakery in the war, Vladimir and Roman Tsankov opened Coffee and People to help their parents start again.
The Tsankov brothers moved to Bratislava just six months ago. Thanks to Roman’s football career, they spent years living in Germany and Spain, frequently travelling back to Ukraine to visit their parents. Then the war began.
“When it happened, we were in Thailand. We rushed back to help our parents get out of the country. They had to leave in an incredible hurry, taking only what they could carry because bombs were falling everywhere. They had to leave behind their new home and the business they had built,” says 38-year-old Vladimir as he hands me a cold brew in their café, Coffee and People.
The brothers’ parents owned a bakery business in Ochakiv, and Vladimir and Roman wanted to recreate that dream for them in Slovakia. Today, neither their family home nor the bakery still exists.
“After they lost everything, we wanted to build something similar for them. That’s why we opened this café,” he says.
