When your hallway becomes a bomb shelter
Editor’s Note:
Tim here. Given the news of impending Russian attacks, I’ll be sleeping in my hallway tonight, as I expect many members of our team will.
This is Myroslava's last story before going on maternity leave. In the coming months, she will embark on a new stage in her life: motherhood.
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Almost everyone has a hallway. There are many like it, but this is mine.
Here, between the two walls, everything is ready: a flashlight, a phone charger, and Wi-Fi.
It isn't a shelter or a fortress, but here I feel at least somewhat safe.
With U.S. intelligence assessing that an additional "multi-pronged strike" on Ukraine is imminent in retribution for ‘Operation Spiderweb,’ I expect I’ll be spending a lot of time this week, the 37th week of my pregnancy. The strikes this week will be “huge, vicious and unrelenting," a Western diplomat told Reuters.
To escape missile strikes, explosions, and shrapnel, experts advise taking cover two walls away from the outside world. So after three years of air raids, these hiding places – hallways, bathrooms, pantries, and closets – have become the new centers of life in Ukrainian households.
The habit of hiding at home conveys a significant yet invisible story about how war alters homes, bodies, and psyches. It reflects how a person changes when danger becomes the backdrop to everything.
If you had to create a bomb shelter in your hallway, what creature comforts would you want to add? Let us know in the comments.
It was Friday, May 23, 2025, at 10:30 p.m., an excellent time to relax and enjoy the end of the working week.
My husband and I were lying in bed, drinking milk (yes, the reality of pregnancy is milk, not beer) and watching Indiana Jones. Our cats, Stuhna and Sheri, were peacefully watching the movie with us.
It could have been a typical movie night. But Ukrainians do not have this privilege.
At 10:50 pm, the air raid alert rang out on our phones.
We realised we needed to check the app to find out what was in the sky. Russian drones still seemed to be far from us, so we decided to keep watching the movie for now.
But then our peace was shattered almost immediately by an explosion.
With how loud it sounded, I realized it was close by.
After the paywall:
Why the corridor is not always safe;
How mothers act during Russian attacks and why it scares Myroslava;
How to cope with the fact that the place of protection – home – has turned into a place of fear.