“We are ready to hide here, the time to let the threat pass”

Ukraine is still watching for progress in the discussions between Moscow, European leaders and the United States to avoid an open conflict. Russia ordered Tuesday, February 15 the return to their garrisons of units deployed near the Ukrainian border, a sign of relaxation still fragile. In the meantime, the country is preparing for the worst, under the threat of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers still massed on its borders.

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In the capital, Kiev, the town hall recently listed more than 5,000 bomb shelters: just follow the red arrows on the walls, drawn all over the city and you will come across a shelter. Sometimes it has been converted into a trendy bar or a strip club. But there, about five meters below the main hall of the central station, it is a vestige inherited from the Cold War that we find, one of the largest shelters in the capital.

Behind the heavy iron door, you first arrive in a huge corridor, under the station, before reaching a second part and a series of small, fairly narrow corridors. The man who visits us and drums on the thick walls is Tkach Anatoly Hrygorovych, the head of the civil defense department of this district Solomianskyi from Kyiv. “We can shelter travelers and even people who live in the neighborhood, he assures. If there is a heavy bombardment, we can also secure the station personnel in this shelter, which is effective even in the event of a nuclear attack.

“Here is the telecommunications room, he explains. If the connections are cut, everything is planned here… We also have simpler shelters in the buildings: we have 541 in our borough, as well as three metro stations, to which we must add high-level shelters like this one. ci… There are 74 in this sector”

“There is water, functional toilets, and we are in the process of sorting out the question of food reserves.”

The head of civil defense of the district

at franceinfo

Oleksandr Mykhailovych Kobylskyi heads the engineering department of Kiev’s central station. “In bomb shelters like this, he says, there are air renewal systems, automatic and manual systems… If there is no power, you can manually bring in clean air through filters.” “We are ready to hide here, but it can last a day or two days no more, the time to let the potential threat pass… In absolute terms, there is not really enough to house people here: there is no nothing to stay longer term.”