- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- On attacks anniversary, Israel fights multi-front war
- Mexican mayor murdered days after taking office
- Intensifying to Category 5, Hurricane Milton targets Florida
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Biden, Harris mark Oct. 7 with call for Mideast peace
- Dupont set for Toulouse return after post-Olympic holiday
- French rugby bosses tighten discipline after nightmare Argentina tour
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Visitors to get rare view of Rome's Trevi Fountain
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Man City and Premier League both claim victory in legal case
- Deschamps delight as 'light back on' for Pogba after doping ban
- Biden, Harris urge Mideast peace on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Neeskens, tough midfielder in Cruyff's Ajax and Dutch teams
- UN warns world's water cycle becoming ever more erratic
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- Ex-Dutch football star Johan Neeskens dies
- Man Utd battling to improve fortunes, says Evans
- What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
- Masood, Abdullah centuries lift Pakistan to 328-4 in first England Test
- Hurricane Milton strengthens fast, threatens Mexico, Florida
- Tunisia's President Saied set for landslide election win
- Barca hoping to return to Camp Nou 'by end of year'
- Trump to open second golf course at Scotland resort in summer 2025
- Super-sub Jhon Duran rewarded with new Aston Villa deal
- US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough
- Masood hits first ton for four years to power Pakistan to 233-1
- Fritz wins delayed match to reach Shanghai Masters third round
- Naomi Osaka pulls out of Japan Open with back injury
- Weather may delay launch of mission to study deflected asteroid
- China to flesh out economic stimulus plans after bumper rally
- Artist Marina Abramovic hopes first China show offers tech respite
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on US jobs data
- Pakistan 122-1 at lunch in first England Test
- Kazakhs approve plan for first nuclear power plant
- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- 'Second family': tennis stars hunt winning formula with new coaches
- Philippines, South Korea agree to deepen maritime cooperation
- Mexico mayor murdered days after taking office
- Sardinia's sheep farmers battle bluetongue as climate warms
- Japan govt admits doctoring 'untidy' cabinet photo
- Israel marks first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack
- Darvish tames Ohtani as Padres thrash Dodgers
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on jobs data
- Family affair as LeBron, Bronny James make Lakers bow
- Cancer, cardiovascular drugs tipped for Nobel as prize week opens
- As Great Salt Lake dries, Utah Republicans pardon Trump climate skepticism
- Amazon activist warns of 'critical situation' ahead of UN forum
- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
RBGPF | -1.97% | 58.94 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.2% | 24.65 | $ | |
SCS | -0.7% | 12.88 | $ | |
BCC | 0.48% | 139.569 | $ | |
GSK | 0.06% | 38.845 | $ | |
NGG | -1.28% | 65.66 | $ | |
BCE | -0.33% | 33.6 | $ | |
RIO | -0.13% | 69.61 | $ | |
BTI | -0.02% | 35.284 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.45% | 6.88 | $ | |
RELX | -0.6% | 46.015 | $ | |
JRI | -0.38% | 13.23 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.09% | 24.79 | $ | |
BP | 0.74% | 33.125 | $ | |
AZN | -0.36% | 77.19 | $ | |
VOD | 0.21% | 9.68 | $ |
'Immediately! Now!': Terrified rush into Kyiv basements
It was hard to tell what scared the elderly women more: the piercing peal of air raid sirens or the terrified urgency of the Ukrainian soldier who ordered everyone to run for cover.
"Everyone! Immediately! Now!" the soldier screamed as he dashed in his heavy boots across a road scattered with the exploded remains of grenades and shells.
Behind him stood the charred skeleton of a Ukrainian military truck that was hit while ferrying ordnance to a flashpoint district of northern Kyiv.
Before him were elderly women with handbags and middle-aged men chatting about the war while blowing out cigarette smoke.
And above them -- somewhere in the ominous distance -- was the swooshing sound of either mortars or Grad missiles being fired in a barrage on Ukraine's capital.
The passers-by all ran around the corner of a building and down a dark flight of stairs leading into a concrete basement.
Already waiting for them was a sheltering group of exhausted people who had come desperately close to getting out of Kyiv on the third day of Russia's invasion of their country.
"We were trying to evacuate, but half-way down the road, they started shelling," IT engineer Helga Tarasova said.
She had taken a bus to Kyiv train station with her young son and several friends.
Their next stops were supposed to be the western Ukrainian city of Lviv and then -- possibly -- Poland.
"We only had 800 metres (half a mile) to go until the station," the 36-year-old recalled, while bouncing her son on her knee.
"But the national guard would not let us through. We were running with our bags and I think the bags scared them."
- Shoot-on-sight -
The Ukrainian capital is under seige.
It entered a weekend curfew on Saturday evening that is being enforced with shoot-on-sight orders.
Residents have started taping over exposed window panes and covering up street names, building numbers and other identifiable city markings to try to confuse the invading Russian force.
Queues running to dozens of cars deep snake around the few functioning petrol stations.
Grocery stores are either closed or packed with people staring at grimly bare shelves that are often out of bread and simple meats and cheese.
One soldier was digging a trench on the side of a highway that the Russian tanks are expected to use to push toward Kyiv's Maidan Square and the government district.
"We were hoping that our generation would be the one that lives without war," pensioner Tetyana Filonemko lamented, in the basement.
"All the people can do in a war is hold on, be as one, support each other. That's all we can do."
- 'Open a corridor' -
Filonemko's basement is split into three rooms connected by a narrow corridor and lit by incandescent bulbs hanging off black wires.
One man slept on a yoga mat arranged atop a few wooden planks. A bucket stood beside him on a wooden stool.
Other men paced and some women whispered. The children seemed the least concerned in their play corner.
"All I can think about is the children," said Nadezhda Tkachuk.
The 58-year-old had just walked up the stairs and popped her head out of the door for a quick breathe of fresh air -- and to try to hear how close the fighting had come.
"Let them open a corridor, so that they don't shoot at people, so that we can send the little kids out," she said.
But Yulia Snitka has even more immediate concerns.
The 32-year-old's belly bulged through her clothes on the eighth month of pregnancy and she is worried about being worried.
"I'm trying to stay as calm as possible to not cause a premature birth," she said.
"At night, for more than an hour, there were huge explosions. I hope this all ends in a few days."
Ch.Havering--AMWN