“It’s hard to live through”: Kiev under bombs, Ukrainians shelter in metro

“When there are explosions, it always makes me shudder. My heart is beating fast,” explains Ms. Volochyna in a calm voice. “It’s hard to get past,” said the 34-year-old lawyer, wearing a blue dress and a cross-shaped pendant around his neck.

Now that the war has entered its third year, Ukrainians are trying to balance the need to continue living with the need to seek refuge from deadly strikes.

Kyiv residents often ignore the anti-aircraft alarms that have become a part of everyday life, but this time the explosions were unusually loud.

At the foot of the long escalator to the metro at the central Kreditik station, a good hundred people wait for the green light from the authorities to resume their normal lives.

“Accustomed” to war

Some take out their laptops and are already working on the stone steps.

Sitting in a circle on seats distributed by subway staff, a group of students share snacks.

Anna Publick, engrossed in a book, says she is used to war.

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“When we hear explosions, we are not very comfortable, but if we are always worried… we have been hearing these explosions for three years,” testified a 23-year-old young woman.

Svetlana Karchenko chats with a woman she just met on folding chairs in front of the red and gold mosaic that decorates the station.

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She came after the alarm went off around 6:30 am.

“Everyone here is feeling the pain,” he said. “The trouble is, we’re getting used to this fear.”

3 years of stress

The 51-year-old woman is from the Donetsk region in the east, which today is partially occupied by the Russian military.

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“No one thought that Russia, once our sister, would cause us so much grief,” he says. “It’s a brutal war going on there,” she adds, tears in her eyes.

Despite Ukrainian forces launching an unprecedented counteroffensive in the Russian Kursk region, Russia is focusing its military efforts on the Donetsk region.

Yulia Volochyna says she feels bad for her brother fighting at the front.

“I am worried for my family, for my friends, for the whole of Ukraine, for our protectors,” he insists. “We’ve been under stress for three years now.”