Posted at 6:00 a.m.
Silence never lasts more than an hour in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, which has been pounded by the Russian army for two months.
Artillery fire continues day and night. Impossible to escape the detonations, even when hiding in the corridors of the metro, as do thousands of inhabitants of the metropolis of eastern Ukraine.
Some take refuge underground only at night. Others only go outside to get a breath of fresh air or walk a dog. Without ever straying from the entrance to the station, where they can take refuge in the event of an alert.
PHOTO ADRIENNE SURPRENANT, MYOP ARCHIVES
Thousands of Kharkiv residents have found the metro a place to take refuge from Russian strikes.
If the bombings mainly affect the neighborhoods in the northeast of the city, no sector is really spared by the war, testifies the Quebec doctor Guillaume Mongeau, who arrived in Kharkiv three weeks ago.
Part of a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) team, Guillaume Mongeau is part of a mobile clinic that offers medical care to refugees along the blue line of the Kharkiv metro. The network has 30 stations spread over three lines – the blue one connects the center to the Saltivka district, at the northeast end of the city.
PHOTO ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS, REUTERS ARCHIVES
A man receives food in a subway station that has become a refuge.
This working-class district is by far the most ravaged by the war, Guillaume Mongeau has observed. No wonder the last two stations on the blue line, Heroes of Labor and Students, are packed. From 800 to 1000 people pile up there at night, roped like sardines, on simple floor mattresses or makeshift beds, says Guillaume Mongeau, who spent a night inside the underground network two years ago. weeks.
Not easy to overlook, he says in a telephone conversation from Kharkiv.
It was cold, there was a lot of noise, all the lights were on, there was almost no space to walk, and the sound of shelling echoed loudly.
Guillaume Mongeau, from Doctors Without Borders
Since the start of the war, the metro has been at a standstill. Its stations designed as fallout shelters accommodate residents who were unable to flee or who chose to stay.
Even if the city has emptied half of its 1.4 million inhabitants, many of them have remained so as not to abandon theirs, noted the Quebec doctor. They want to help their community. Guillaume Mongeau is amazed by the efficiency of the voluntary services organized by the inhabitants of Kharkiv, who distribute food and offer basic services to the residents.
The most vulnerable
According to Guillaume Mongeau, there are relatively few children left in Kharkiv. On the other hand, many elderly people, vulnerable people, people who live “on a fifteenth floor of a building that has no shelter” – and who are potentially exposed to bombs. There are also those whose homes have been damaged too much by the rockets to return. And those who feel too alone in the face of the bombs to stay quietly at home.
PHOTO RICARDO MORAES, REUTERS
Infections spread very quickly in metro stations, where people live in close quarters.
With promiscuity, the corridors of the metro are veritable viral incubators. Infections are spreading there at breakneck speed, and Guillaume Mongeau’s team treats many colds, bronchitis and pneumonia. Even after two months of Russian offensive, Kharkiv is not cut off from the world. The city is accessible from the west and from the south, and therefore relatively well supplied with food and medicine. But some medical care is hard to get. Because doctors have fled the city, patients have had to interrupt their treatments, for example.
One of the problems, points out Guillaume Mongeau, is access to drugs regulating blood pressure. And then, how to respect a minimum of hygiene in these stations without sanitary facilities worthy of the name, where the rare toilets are not even equipped with doors? “To wash, you have to bring a bucket of water”, explains the Dr Mongeau.
PHOTO ADRIENNE SURPRENANT, MYOP ARCHIVES
Elena, 35, and her son Kirill, 6, in consultation with two Doctors Without Borders doctors at a Kharkiv metro station
Those who are able to access their apartment to take a shower do so during the day. The others have to do it differently. The more time passes, the more these conditions weigh heavily on the mental health of Kharkivians. MSF also offers psychological support to refugees from the metro, some of whom suffer from anxiety. “Their stress is justified with what has been going on over their heads for two months,” says the Dr Mongeau.
There’s a lot of fatigue, spending two months underground, going out very rarely, not seeing the light of day, it’s hard to bear.
Guillaume Mongeau, from Doctors Without Borders
Kharkiv is not Mariupol, there is still a semblance of normality in the center of the city, although the majority of businesses are closed, there are few cars and many military checkpoints.
PHOTO ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS, REUTERS ARCHIVES
A resident of Kharkiv who took refuge in the metro reads a book.
A life is organized in the corridors of the metro, with its shows, its activities for the children who have remained in Kharkiv. The first time he descended on a metro platform, on his arrival in Kharkiv, Guillaume Mongeau was surprised to come across a concert given by a famous opera singer.
“I’ve seen more children laugh than cry here,” says Dr.r Mongeau.
The big question remains: how long will Kharkiv be able to hold on psychologically?