WHEN the daily shelling starts in this besieged city in eastern Ukraine, those who have not yet fled the fighting grab their children and head underground.
If there is time before running into cellars and basements, the people of Slaviansk gather chairs, clothes, water and other provisions for stays that can last for hours or, sometimes, all night.
“We live in our cellar,” said Svetlana Dobrostroy, who has a six-year-old daughter and a son aged 10. “The kids get very scared. They know it’s a war. They’re the first to run to the cellar.”
About half the 130,000 residents of Slaviansk are thought to have fled since fighters who want eastern Ukraine incorporated into Russia took control of the city.
Ms Dobrostroy had no income since the dairy factory where she worked closed at the start of the fighting, and worries about what would become of her children in an unfamiliar place.
