Yahoo TV

Footage posted on June 22 by Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne, shows the living quarters of university students in Kharkiv who were forced to shelter in the basement of their dorm building at the start of the war.

In the report, Oleksandr Goryunov, a student at Kharkiv National University, shows the living situation of 30 students who are currently using the basement as a shelter amid the war. He says that when the Russian invasion began on February 24, there were 80 to 90 people living there.

“We made a small commune and lived like a big family,” Goryunov told Suspilne.

The students who remain there either don’t have anywhere else to go, or their homes are now in occupied territories, Goryunov said.

Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, is located 19 miles away from the Russia-Ukraine border and has been a target for Russian troops since the invasion began.

Hoards of bottled water, canned food, and a first-aid kit can be seen in the basement. The students created makeshift living and dining areas, as well as a sleeping area with mattresses taken from the dorms upstairs. Goryunov also reveals numerous shovels in case of collapses. Credit: Suspilne Media via Storyful