Lyuba Lyubchyk: Instead of school dreams, a night in a Kyiv shelter

by Lyuba Lyubchyk, Chair of the UWC’s International Educational Coordinating Council (IECC).

Source: Lyubchyk on Facebook

The hell that once again descended on Kyiv tonight showed no mercy: ballistic missiles, Iskanders, deadly Zircons, Shaheds, jet-powered drones. Twenty minutes of terror and fury, when every breath seemed like a victory.

The semi-darkness of a capital parking garage hides hundreds of human stories. Time passes differently here. From above comes a dull rumble — another explosion that seems to make space itself tremble. But down here, a completely different force prevails.

Faces can be seen in the dim light of flashlights and phone screens. Tired adults and small children, curled up on blankets right on the cold floor.

The night before September 1 always had a special smell — the smell of freshly ironed new school clothes, new school supplies and children’s anticipation. This night should have been about peaceful dreams and warm summer dreams, but instead — the cold concrete of a shelter and the sounds of explosions.

It is impossible to watch without pain as, instead of a warm blanket in their own beds, children wrap themselves in an adult jacket on the damp floor of a parking garage. As tiny fingers clutch a favorite stuffed toy, and little eyes wander across the ceiling, trying to guess from each next explosion where exactly the rumbling is coming from…

There are no strangers in these underground corridors. Someone shares hot tea from a thermos, someone gives away their last charger, and someone simply silently puts an arm around the shoulders of a person whose hands are trembling too much. In people’s eyes are pain, fear and exhaustion, but alongside this is a restrained, almost tangible resilience.

When cold concrete becomes a shelter, PEOPLE remain the greatest source of warmth. Kyiv once again held on underground today so that it could greet the dawn above ground again.

P.S. In the morning, I saw that the border crossing at the Ukrainian border with Romania in Odesa Region, through which we returned yesterday, had been completely destroyed…

By morning, 8 people had already been killed in Kyiv…

Pain and despair.