“Situation remains critical”
Many air raid shelters in Kyiv unusable
06/05/2023, 3:00 p.m
In view of the ongoing Russian rocket and drone attacks at night, shelters in the Ukrainian capital are an important element. But many entrances are said to be locked or unusable. An inventory in Kiev paints a worrying picture.
A commission of inquiry has declared almost half of the air-raid shelters it checked in Kiev as not ready for use. “The situation remains critical,” Ukrainian Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin wrote on Telegram. According to him, around 45 percent of the around 1,850 shelters checked were either not ready for use or not accessible to the inspectors.
There are said to be problems with access to air raid shelters in several districts of the Ukrainian capital, as Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram. Klitschko also pointed out that the administrations of the individual city districts had received around 1.2 billion hryvnia (about 300,000 euros) for the construction of emergency shelters in the past two years. According to Klitschko, it is still being examined how these funds were used.
A child and two adults were killed in a Russian air raid in Kiev last week – the nearest air raid shelter had been locked. The Ukrainian President Zelenskyy then instructed the government to take care of improving the situation.
Russia regularly attacks Kiev with a combination of drones and missiles. In May alone, the Ukrainian capital saw 17 Russian airstrikes.
Residents are instructed not to leave the shelters during an air raid alarm. According to the Kiev military administration, the air defense systems destroy numerous missiles, but falling debris still poses a danger to residents in many places.