Shelter gaps leave Ukrainians desperate, angry as Russian attacks mount

KYIV, July 29 - Tetiana Lishchynska was overcome with emotion when dozens of residents in one of Kyiv's districts hardest-hit by Russian strikes gathered this month to press authorities to open a bomb shelter under preparation since 2023.

"I had to run with my 4-year-old grandson to a clinic while there was a ballistic missile attack," she screamed, amid a crowd of exasperated civilians in Sviatoshynskyi district.

The clinic has a basement and is about seven minutes from her home. A ballistic missile reaches Kyiv in under three minutes.

Lishchynska says she could get to the shelter at a school that was supposed to open last year in two minutes.

Yet it will not start operating until September because utilities and paperwork remain uncompleted, officials say. In the meantime, Russia has been pummelling Kyiv with ballistic missiles that Ukraine lacks the means to intercept.

"Here, I could have come right away," Lishchynska added. Instead, she had to let a neighbour take her grandson and run ahead through the night because she couldn't keep up.

Russia has killed 73 people in June and July in intensified attacks on Kyiv, the city's military administration said.

As demand for safe spaces has spiked  — with some sheltering for the first time — the lack of proper sites has come into focus.

Kyiv has 4,358 facilities to shelter its 3 million residents, the city administration says, though only around 500 of them are proper bomb shelters.

People accuse the authorities of complacency, brushing off exhortations to stay safe as hypocrisy: the "ultimate act of cynicism", according to one Sviatoshynskyi resident.

METRO-TURNED-SHELTER

Kyiv's 47 underground stations have become its most reliable shelters, though even they are not totally safe.

The entrance to the station in the Lukyanivskyi district, which Russia pummels in almost every strike, has been damaged 10 times.

On May 24, residents sheltering there, more than 50 metres underground, recalled the smoke and dust that followed a wave of strikes.

On June 2, as anxiety mounted, 41,000 people spent a night underground across Kyiv, metro data shows. On Thursday a record 56,000 sought shelter, and tempers flared as sleep-deprived people again blamed those using camping tents for taking up too much space, to the detriment of others.

Residents say security guards at the entrance to metro stations sometimes turn people away before the sirens begin, even mocking the fears of those trying to head underground in anticipation of an attack that officials have warned is coming.

"Metro security treats people as if they are going there for fun," said Dmytro Dichenko, a 30-year-old musician and marketing specialist who was turned away last year with his wife between waves of strikes.

Missiles reached the city once they got back home. Since then, they mostly stay at home — scared to be outside during an attack, as Dichenko's prosthesis makes it hard for him to run.

Though such cases are rare, Dichenko's experience is by no means unique.

Metro spokesperson Oksana Nykyforuk said the system is doing its best with available resources, and its primary purpose remains transportation.

COMPLACENCY

Valentyna, a middle-aged woman who did not give a surname, lives in Sviatoshynskyi in a building that is missing a chunk after being hit last year by a missile. From her window she can see a shelter in a school that was due to open late last year.

Authorities say it is still not ready, so when an attack comes, she has to run to a less reliable basement further away.

"What can you expect from our mad neighbour (Russia) when this is how people are treated in this country?" Valentyna said.

Trying to calm tensions, Oleksiy Sukennikov, head of the district's education department, said bureaucracy could not be defeated and blamed it for the delays in opening the two school shelters in Sviatoshynskyi.

Kyiv has more shelters than any other Ukrainian city. But the state ombudsman's office found problems in 93% of 1,066 sites nationwide it has checked, including 125 in the capital. Among them are accessibility for people with disabilities, poor sanitation and maintenance.

"There were instances where facilities, listed in open sources as being accessible to the public, were closed or unfit for use," it said.

When challenged, authorities keep passing responsibility back and forth, residents say.

Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv's mayor, said city authorities had set aside over 1.1 billion hryvnias ($24.51 million) this year to repair shelters, adding that since the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022, they had spent 7 billion hryvnias.

LESSER OF TWO EVILS

People in neighbourhoods without metro stations or shelters nearby face a choice between the lesser of two evils.

Some stay in a bathroom or a corridor with zero protection from a direct hit. Others relocate to basements, risking being buried under rubble.

After every strike, many turn to social media — to decompress and share where they spent the night.

One woman said she was not let into a shelter because of her dog. Another rents a hotel room to be able to access its shelter — an option that only a few can afford. Many resort to sleeping in underground parking lots.

"The situation with shelters is very poor, given that we are now in the fifth year of the war," Dichenko said.

"As a result, we are seeing a higher number of civilian casualties." REUTERS