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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Illia Ponomarenko

Kyiv’s suburbs now look like the hellscape of Stalingrad – but we still have hope

People sleeping inside Dorohozhychi subway station in Kyiv.
People sleeping inside Dorohozhychi subway station in Kyiv, Ukraine, 2 March 2022. Photograph: Roman Pilipey/EPA

As I write these lines in Kyiv, my window panes are shaking to the booms of air defence guns intercepting Russian aircraft over the city. On Monday night, the Ukrainian military reported two airplanes had been downed.

What happened to the city still feels like an old movie. Two weeks ago our streets were buzzing with joy, cafes and shops were full, street singers were singing and young people were dancing outside the Khreshchatyk subway station. Now it is a ghost city, a mix of London during the blitz and something from futuristic post-apocalyptic fiction.

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