As Russia’s invasion forces moved closer to key targets across Ukraine on Friday and rockets rained down on the country’s main cities, ordinary Ukrainians took refuge underground – or tried to go about their day as normal.
Moscow claimed it was attacking only military targets but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said civilian sites had also been hit.
Hundreds of people take shelter inside a downtown Kharkiv metro station as explosions are heard outside on February 24. Credit:Washington Post/Salwan Georges
“They’re killing people and turning peaceful cities into military targets,” he said.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and a mere 40 kilometres from the Russian border, hundreds of residents huddled together in underground metro stations, The Washington Post reported. Russian artillery sporadically thundered above.
Kharkiv was long considered a likely target for the Russians because of the city’s proximity to the border and its majority Russian-speaking population. But some people were still confused by the sound of blasts.
Inside one subway station, people lined the walls and sat along the stairwell, The Washington Post said. Trains sat on both sides of the platform with the doors open. People unrolled yoga mats and blankets on the floor. Children played games on phones while adults refreshed the latest news. Some people had prams, suitcases and pets with them. Others had very few belongings.
Oksana Nipogodneyeva, 46, said it was as if she had “woken up in another reality”. She expected to spend the night on the station floor with her mother and two daughters.
“The people who call us a brotherly country are committing these actions,” she told The Washington Post. “It’s some kind of betrayal and you just can’t understand it.”
In Kiev, the morning commute transformed into chaos, with lines of cars waiting at petrol stations or fleeing from the grey and drizzly capital. People carrying luggage took shelter in metro stations, unsure of where to go.
Some panicked. Others clung to routine, with irritation.
“I’m not afraid. I’m going to work,” one resident complained, as air raid sirens wailed. “The only unusual thing is that you can’t find a taxi in Kyiv”
Many seemed unsure how to react. Kyiv’s main street, Khreshchatyk, rippled with anxiety as people checked their phones. Some walked their dogs or waved at friends.
“I’m not scared at the moment. Maybe I’ll be scared later,” Maxim Prudskoi said.
But elsewhere in the capital, Anna Dovnya watched soldiers and police remove shrapnel from an exploded shell and was terrified. “We have lost all faith,” she said. “Until the very last moment, I didn’t believe it would happen. I just pushed away these thoughts.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko called on the city’s 3 million people to stay indoors unless they worked in critical sectors and said everyone should pack bags with necessities such as medicine and documents.
Within an hour of it turning dark, the capital’s metro stations had filled with families and children, chatting, playing and eating dinner. People brought sleeping bags and blankets, dogs and crossword puzzles. Some appeared visibly moved by what was happening to their country.
“[I’m here] because I think that it is one of the only places right now where you can hide in Kyiv. All the other places are… terrifying.” said Bogdan Voytenko, one of the residents taking shelter in the metro.
He said he intended to spend the night in the makeshift bomb shelter along with his two friends. They had brought nuts and dried fruit and sleeping bags to make the night as comfortable as possible.
Passengers rest at a temporary shelter inside a railway station after arriving in Poland by train from Kyiv.Credit:Getty
“Nobody believed that this war would start, and that they would take Kyiv directly,” said Anton Mironov, another man who was sheltering in the old Soviet metro station. “In general, I feel mostly, fatigue. None of it feels real. I don’t even know how to relate to it.”
Best friends Euhenia Lysenko and Anna Dudka said they were shocked that Russia had launched a “full-scale invasion” and the capital had been hit.
“In the morning, there was total panic. Hysteria. Tears. Fear for your relatives, for your loved ones. And it wasn’t clear what to do, where to run, or how to behave” Dudka said.
Thousands of Ukrainians who could escape the invasion started arriving in the country’s neighbours on Thursday and the region braced for a massive flood of refugees.
Former Soviet satellites Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania – all now members of NATO – share land borders with Ukraine and authorities have been setting up reception points and sending troops towards the borders to provide assistance.
At the usually quiet border crossing at Medyka in southern Poland, dozens arrived from Ukraine on foot on Thursday morning, carrying what luggage they could. A line of cars waiting for passage grew longer during the day.
A Polish woman, Olena Bogucka, 39, said she had been waiting for four hours while her Ukrainian husband and child were stuck on the other side.
“You can’t get through,” she said. “I can’t reach them on the phone … I don’t how to get my child out … I don’t know what to do.”
Reuters, AP
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.
Most Viewed in World
From our partners
Source: Read Full Article
