Kutuzivka, Ukraine — We walked from the brilliant sunshine down a flight of stairs right into a darkish, gloomy basement. It was stuffed with beds, and no matter private belongings the individuals who fled to the constructing might seize when Russia began hammering their village with artillery.
Kutuzivka is just 15 miles from the Russian border, proper within the path of the Russian tanks that rolled via on their solution to Kharkiv — after which again once more as they retreated. Lots of the village's folks fled earlier than or throughout Russia's occupation, or left after the city was deserted by the occupiers.
However whereas the Russian troopers are gone, the bombardment hasn't stopped, so there are nonetheless folks sheltering within the basement we visited. There was about 100 folks there, together with 40 youngsters, however we discovered just one baby left.
Tymofiy Seidov was there along with his mom, who mentioned they merely had nowhere else to go. Rita, his mom, advised us she thought they have been going to die each day.
Tymofiy's ache was extremely unhappy to witness. He is been hiding along with his mother within the basement for 84 days. At simply 8 years outdated, he is endured unimaginable horror. The sound of fixed shelling has left him shell-shocked and traumatized.
At any time when our dialog turned to the conflict, Tymofiy would go mute. He used to attract cheerful photos, with the solar and blue skies. Now he attracts tanks and monsters.
He remained very quiet and well mannered whereas we have been there, however his mom mentioned when the shelling begins, he will get hysterical.
All of his pals have left the bunker.
"They ran away," he mentioned sadly.
Tymofiy misses his finest buddy, Nikita, essentially the most. He turns 9 in July and needs a telephone for his birthday, to play video games on. He has a pet parrot and a hamster with him within the underground shelter. He might by no means absolutely recuperate from what he is residing via proper now.