Ukraine: Moving Photos Show Ukrainians Taking Shelter As Bombs Hit Country

As Russia continues its invasion, ordinary Ukrainian citizens have been forced to take shelter from heavy bombardments targeting the country's towns and cities.

In the capital Kyiv, and in Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, residents have been placed under a 36 hour curfew, unable to leave their homes amid fears that Russian saboteurs may be roaming the streets.

But life continues, albeit forced underground.

A girl hides in a bomb shelter (Alamy)

In Kyiv, a baby girl clings to her bottle as she and her family hide in the basement of an apartment block in Gorlovka, Donbass. Behind her, makeshift bunks have been set up, with residents having brought their belongings to the basement with them.

People hide in a bomb shelter (Alamy)

In the same basement, one woman can be seen covering her hands with her face as she and her neighbours take shelter in the concrete cellar. Air raids and shelling in Donbass, where war has raged for eight years, have been taking place nightly.

Subway station serves as a shelter for thousands of people (Alamy)

In the capital, Kyiv, locals were sent to the shelters with little warning when war broke out, with air raids sounding as Russian troops launched shelling and missile attacks on the capital. Just days earlier, most people in the capital had been going about their lives as normal, with an attack on the city considered unthinkable.

Subway station serves as a shelter for thousands of people (Alamy)

Now, the metro has been converted into a full-time bomb shelter, with trains no longer running and makeshift camp beds set to up for locals to rest on.

A woman holds a dog in the basement of a residential tower block (Alamy)

Elsewhere in the capital, residential basements have also become shelters, with women, children, the elderly and their pets taking cover as Ukrainian troops and volunteers fend off Russian attempts to encircle the city.

Ukrainian refugees rest at a temporary shelter (Alamy)

Following the Russian invasion it's been reported that more than 300,000 Ukrainians have fled for neighbouring countries, including Poland, which is processing tens of thousands of Ukrainians every day. While some have relatives to stay with, other have been resting at temporary shelters set up at Przemysl train station, where refugees have been arriving by the thousands on trains from Lviv in the west of Ukraine.

Children hide in a bomb shelter in the basement of an apartment block (Alamy)

Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to the strength of the country's people on Saturday, February 26, saying the courage of Ukrainians proved that the Russians could not win.

'We will fight to the very end to liberate the country,' he said. 'If babies are being born in the bomb shelters amid shelling, the enemy has no chance in this undeniably people’s war.'

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