In Kharkiv, Residents Adjust To A New Life Underground

One of the city’s poorest districts, Saltivka, has hundreds of civilians seeking refuge in the metro stations. But they tell Kim Sengupta how they have created a sense of community

- Kim Sengupta

There are two Saltivkas. One is above ground, an area containing row after row of broken buildings and charred cars on roads cratered by bombs, solitary figures hurrying along, and frightened faces peering out of windows amid the sound of explosions.

There is another Saltivka, though, comprising hundreds of people who used to live there and are now transplanted underground, huddled together in metro stations, anxious about whether the homes they left behind have survived the daily barrage of missile strikes and artillery rounds.

Saltivka is the most heavily bombed district of one of the most extensively bombed cities in the war so far, Kharkiv. Ukraine’s second city has yet to experience the withdrawal of Russian forces, as has happened around the capital, Kyiv. Here the onslaught has continued as the Kremlin attempts to block off the Donbas, which lies to the east of the city.

Ukrainian troops have made hard-fought gains in the villages and towns around Kharkiv, but Vladimir Putin’s forces remain within close enough range to carry out salvos of lethal strikes, often indiscriminately, into residential areas, taking a rising toll of lives.