Ukraine: in the northeast of Kharkiv, life underground in an atomic shelter
Audio 01:27
The entrance to the former atomic shelter where families from the Saltivka district of Kharkiv have taken refuge since the start of the war in Ukraine.
© RFI/Marie Normand
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Saltivka, a bruised district of Donbass.
Every day, this residential area located very close to the front line, in the northeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, is targeted by rockets.
Families have taken refuge in an abandoned former Soviet atomic shelter.
Advertisement
Read more
With our special envoys back from Donbass,
Marie Normand and Julien Boileau
Many families left in the face of the worsening of the situation in the Saltivka district.
But others stayed, and some of them have been living in a former Soviet-era fallout shelter for 50 days.
They have nowhere to go.
“
There are only 45 people left here, there were 250 at the start
,” says Oleg.
Residents of the neighborhood hid in this Soviet-era fallout shelter for a long time.
There were hundreds of people at the start of the war.
Many have now fled further west.
There are only about fifty families holed up here.
#ukraine @RFI pic.twitter.com/W641xFnG14
— Marie Normand (@normandmarie) April 12, 2022
“They have nowhere to go”
Mattresses, furniture, food supplies, medicines: the old abandoned shelter has been completely fitted out, he adds.
The hardest part: succeeding in evacuating the garbage to avoid the rats.
No running water... The toilets and showers are outside, so exposed to bombardment.
►Read also: In Kramatorsk in the Donbass, these Ukrainians who decided to stay
At least, at 12 meters deep, you can't hear the explosions.
Like that day when a rocket fell just 20 meters from the door.
If Oleg stays here, it's above all for his mother.
My mother absolutely does not want to leave.
Others stay because they have nowhere to go, or don't want to feel like strangers away from home.
The building in the Saltivka district, where the families took refuge 20 meters underground.
© RFI/Marie Normand
"It's okay, there are toys here"
Alla, 78, admits to being very tired.
Sometimes she dares to go outside to breathe a little outside.
Not very long, because as soon as I hear explosions, I start shaking and quickly go back down to the shelter.
In another room, 11-year-old Victor, livid, sits alone on his bed.
It's okay, there are toys here.
Before, there were a lot of children.
But then they all left with their parents
Victor's parents admit they don't know where to go, even when they can get out of this shelter.
Their apartment was completely destroyed by a strike last month.
►To re-read: In the Donbass, the village of Sviatohirsk extremely divided over the war
Other reports from our special correspondents in Kharkiv
►In Kharkiv, a handful of restaurants reopen to boost the morale of the inhabitants
►In Kharkiv and its surroundings, the daily fear of a Russian assault
►In Kharkiv, volunteers deliver meals in dangerous areas
© RFI
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Ukraine
Russia
Humanitarian