Surviving Air Raids in Lviv, Ukraine

The night after I arrived in Lviv, Ukraine, there was a major air raid. The entire country of Ukraine was on air raid alert. Earlier in the evening loud voices and music from across the street sounded like a party outside of my window. A man’s voice boomed out of nowhere in the middle of the night. His excited voice spoke only in Ukrainian. I did not hear a siren, however that most likely woke me up. “What’s going on” I wondered.

It was a major, possibly the worst ever, air raid from Russia. Drones flying overhead. From my fifth floor apartment, I had no clue what was going on and was glad I survived, when others did not. People died, were injured and buildings demolished.

Then two nights ago, sirens blared. The ominous man’s voice boomed over the load speaker. Now I knew what what was going on. Earlier in the evening, I felt there would be a repeat performance, so had packed my tote with documents, snacks and water. My clothes were ready to jump into. I grabbed my stuff and made it to the basement shelter door. It was locked. I banged on it and screamed. No answer. A security man came over. We went to the empty reception desk. He made a phone call, then took me out of the hotel into a passageway of a small shopping mall. Yay, there was another shelter sign. This time I made it successfully. It was comfortable with couches and a bottled water stand with cups. We had internet in the shelter and I contacted my family. I had thought we would be huddled together on the floor in a dim hallway, like in the photos of WW II London. I met another hotel guest and time passed quickly getting acquainted.

We left when the air raid was over. Then about twenty minutes after getting up to my room. Another alarm sounded and I raced down five flights of steps to the shelter again. This time it was short.

I was surprised to see life going on as usual when I got out side. Ukrainians are not letting Putin destroy their everyday lives. People were strolling in the park and city squares. Coffee shops and cafes were filled.