Hannah Smith
A young Ukrainian has gone viral on TikTok after documenting her life in one of the country's most-targeted cities.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Valeri's life was just like any other young woman's. Her TikTok showed her hanging out with friends, travelling around Europe and just generally living her best life.
Now, she spends most of her day in a bomb shelter, and her TikTok videos mainly show destroyed buildings and bare supermarket shelves.
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Valeri lives in Chernihiv – a city in the north of Ukraine that has been under devastating bombardment by Russian forces since the invasion began 12 days ago.
In a dark twist on the 'A Day In My Life' TikTok trend, Valeri has been sharing what a 'typical day in a bomb shelter' is like.
The TikToker has moved into a basement with her parents and her dog, where they shelter from the Russian shell and rocket attacks that have targeted residential areas of the city.
During the day, Valeri shows how she ventures outside to go back to her family's home to retrieve food and other things to bring back to the shelter, giving her a chance to 'check what Putin [has done] with my city'.
The clip shows storefronts with blown out windows, homes reduced to rubble, and in one case a woman standing on the street with her possessions.
But it also shows how some of the mundane everyday stuff continues underground, like joking with your dad and annoying your mum while she cooks dinner, as well as her dog's confusion at being kept underground.
As her video reveals, her dad has even brought a desk and computer to the shelter, to allow him to continue working even while their city is under attack.
Valeri has also posted other videos showing the situation on the ground in Chernihiv, touring enormous craters caused by missile and bomb blasts, and showing the state of things in local supermarkets, as she races to get the 'last avocado' in the store.
It's a sobering look at how Ukrainian lives have been turned upside down within just two weeks, and Valeri's video has quickly gone viral on TikTok, receiving more than 20 million views and 2.4 million likes, as her followers share their support for her and her family as they try their best to survive.
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