UKRAINE CRISIS - ‘I'M SEARCHING FOR BOMB SHELTERS'

AN AUSSIE MUM STUCK IN THE UKRAINE SHARES HER FEARS AS RUSSIAN FORCES GATHER ON THE BORDER

- Michael Crooks

COPE WITH FEAR

According to Australian mother Nataliya (above, with son Michael), “there is no panic”, but she remains incredulous that she’s stuck in the Ukraine. “I didn’t know what to do when I found out I couldn’t leave,” she says.

Sitting in her parents’ apartment, in the Ukrainian city of Poltava on February 15, Australian Nataliya Poshyvaylo-Towler did something she had never done before. The mum-of-two, who is in Ukraine with her 8-year-old son Michael visiting her parents, had grown up in Poltava and knew there were Soviet-era bomb shelters scattered around the city. Opening her phone, she began searching for the havens.

“I looked on a Google map how far away they are, how to get there, how many people they take,” she tells WHO. “I just have to be prepared in case something happens.”

That anxiety is being felt throughout Ukraine as its people brace for war. Since late last year, Russia has amassed more than 150,000 troops, as well as tanks and artillery, along the country’s eastern border, in what the US-led alliance of NATO calls a “massive invasion force”. The Australian government has urged the 1400 Australians living in Ukraine to flee the country. “We have every reason to believe the Russian forces … intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days,” said US President Joe Biden.