Featured Image Credit: @berdynskykh_k/Twitter
Topics: Russia, Ukraine, World News
Cameron Frew
Emotional footage has emerged from a makeshift bomb shelter in a Ukrainian metro station, where people have been playing the national anthem to comfort those hiding from the conflict.
As President Vladimir Putin's 'special military operation' enters its sixth day in Ukraine, the UN has estimated 136 civilians to have been killed as part of the invasion, including 13 children, most likely the result of 'explosive weapons with a wide impact area'. However, it's been said that the actual toll could be far higher.
Just this morning, at least 10 civilians were killed in shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, echoing blasts across the country in the wake of talks between negotiators from both sides, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy applying for European Union membership.
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When Russia launched its first missiles into Ukraine, thousands of citizens hunkered down in subway stations across the country. Kyiv's network of 52 Soviet-era stations is considered among the most impressive in the world, and their depth allow sanctuary for those hiding from the blasts. 'I'm here because I think it is one of the only places right now where you can hide in Kyiv. All of the other places are terrifying,' one resident told euronews.
In Obolon station, a viral clip was released of a man trumpeting the national anthem to those around him. Kristina Berdynskykh, a reporter with Kyiv-based magazine Novoye Vremya, recorded the clip, and it's since amassed nearly 800,000 views. 'I have cried more in the last few days than in years. I am so moved by the Ukrainian people and their great leader,' one user reacted.
Berdynskykh — who's been forced to sleep in the station for five nights in a row amid missile strikes, recently posting a selfie inside a train car and writing that she'd managed to get a 'VIP' seat — also criticised Putin's strikes on Kharkiv.
'Kharkiv is a Russian-speaking city in Ukraine. And right now, during the peace talks, Putin is destroying the Russian-speaking population of the city by shelling residential areas. This is the protection of the Russian-speaking population in Russian? We will never forgive Russia for all these deaths,' she wrote.
While air raid sirens blare across Kyiv and other cities, music and miracles have persisted in metro stations, with others playing the national anthem and adults singing Ukrainian folk songs to keep children calm, and some babies even being born during Russian bombings.
If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information.