Russia Wants to Lock Ukraine Back in the Soviet Cellar

As Putin gave his latest rant of resentment in the Kremlin, hinting at Cold War style nuclear threats, medieval holy war with the “satanic” West, and restoring the USSR by annexing slices of Ukraine, the Ukrainian army continued liberating parts of the country he was claiming to annex. As Ukrainian forces have freed people over the last few weeks in the Kharkiv region from Russian occupiers, they were greeted by relieved locals. Many told how they spent weeks, sometimes even months, hiding in their cellars from the Russian invasion. Such cellar stories are one of the repeating leitmotifs of the invasion.

Since February some Ukrainians have retreated to cellars for safety, seeking shelter from indiscriminate bombardment, ears attuned to measuring the proximity of each missile blast, bodies reverberating with every tremor. Across Ukraine there have been underground hospitals and underground schools, underground TV studios and underground concerts. Some 2500 civilians hid in the labyrinthine passages and halls underneath the vast, four square mile factory complex of Azovstal in Mariupol, as the Russians obliterated the city above them.