CityLab Daily: How Kyiv Turned Its Subway Into a Bomb Shelter
Also today: Mumbai becomes first south Asian city to detail net-zero roadmap, and the green building flunking New York’s climate law.
A woman holds her child inside a subway car in an underground metro station used as a bomb shelter in Kyiv on March 13.
Photographer: Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images
Some 15,000 residents in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv have taken shelter in metro stations since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24. Built at the height of the Cold War, most of Kyiv Metro’s 52 stations were designed to double as bomb shelters — even if architects might never have imagined the source of the current threat. The stations, the deepest of which runs 346 feet below the city, are equipped with ample public bathroom facilities and drinking water fountains.
Meanwhile, a skeleton crew of about 3,000 metro employees are courageously still operating limited subway service, working around the clock to keep things running smoothly. “People are exhausted, but they understand the importance of their job,” Kyiv Metro’s deputy director tells Feargus O’Sullivan. Today on CityLab: As Thousands Shelter in Stations, Kyiv’s Metro Is Still Running Trains.