In a Ukrainian School, 12 People Await the War’s End, or Their Own
The artillery barrages and rocket strikes started when the Russians first invaded in February, 59 days ago, and have not stopped. For those still hiding in this school in Kharkiv, every day now brings the same routine: Rise at first light, start the fires, boil water, make tea, cook soup and return to the basement.
They cower in the unbearably cold underground, packed together and listening as shells slam Kharkiv, an eastern Ukrainian city of 1.4 million before the war started. There were roughly 300 people sheltering in the school in the early days of the war, yet nearly all have fled.
Now there are only 12.
“Here the people left have nowhere to go and nowhere to come back to,” said Larisa Kuznetsova, 55, one of the school’s inhabitants until recently. “And where shall we move? Who needs us elsewhere?”
@nytimes