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Life in Ukraine one month in
STORY: A month into Russia’s invasion, this is life in Ukraine… cities reduced to rubble, long lines for humanitarian aid, and hundreds sheltering underground, like in Kharkiv’s metro system.Natalia Shaposhnik and her daughter Veronika have been living in a blue and yellow train far underground Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, since the beginning of Russia’s invasion.”Surely, it is not better than home but it is liveable. One can say our living conditions are better than others, what I mean is we are not right on the platform. My child and I are in the carriage, we get food, there is a toilet. We are doing fine.”For four long weeks, Shaposhnik and hundreds like her have hunkered down inside the station in the north of the city, many of whom have endured near-daily shelling.Above them, destroyed or heavily damaged buildings line the eerily quiet streets.Anastasia Horkova is a local journalist.”Here, there are about 250 people sheltering here. Many go out during the day to breath fresh air, go to the supermarket and this (holding shrapnel) flew here.”A couple hundred miles to the south, the scene is no better in the battered city of Mariupol where long lines for humanitarian aid have filled a former shopping center.Alexandra is a local resident.”My husband didn’t make it to receive humanitarian aid, he had diabetes. The scarce diet of the last days led him to coma and he died. If he could have made it for the aid, he’d be alive. I still can’t tell the Russian relatives he passed away.”Many have evacuated the port city for temporary shelter in Russia’s southern city of Taganrog, like pediatrician Galina Ovchinnikova.“We were eating once a day. All we have cooked in the morning we were eating during the whole day. And the rest of the time we were sitting in the basement. It was dirty there and dark. We were burning candles, making oil lamps. It was cold there.” Eighty three-year-old Raisa Kairat said she lost contact with her daughter and grandchild when the siege started. “So beautiful Mariupol used to be and suddenly it was reduced dust. How dare you to fire at people? They are animals, not humans. Kindergartens, stores, schools… School nearby was destroyed. Why would anyone shoot at the houses where people lived. What for?” Russia continues to deny targeting civilians and calls its invasion a “special military operation.”
