“We don’t know how long we have to stay here. Good we have chairs at least,” a 35-year-old woman who gave her name as Viktoria said, while her children, five and seven, slept, still wearing their winter coats.
“The kids were scared, they cry and ask ‘Mom, will we all die?’,” Alla, a woman in her 40s told Reuters’ reporters at a basement shelter in Kyiv.
The basement where she took cover was packed with hundreds of people with no place to sleep, only chairs and some water. Even finding a place to sit was difficult.
“We don’t know how long we have to stay here. Good we have chairs at least,” a 35-year-old woman who gave her name as Viktoria said, while her children, five and seven, slept, still wearing their winter coats.
“Right now, all we can hear is the sound of shells,” Lakshmi Devi, 21, a third year student at the Kharkiv National medical university, told Reuters. “We can’t even count how many.” Devi is one of thousands of international students stranded in Kyiv. He and others sheltered in their apartment’s basement as the explosions sounded around the city.
As dawn broke on Saturday, Kyiv officials warned residents that street fighting was under way against Russian forces, and urged people to seek shelter.
The warning advised residents to remain in shelters, avoid going near windows or on balconies, and take precautions against being hit by debris or bullets.
