Kharkiv's underground residents defiant despite constant Russian bombing

Despite all the suffering and terror, Ukrainians remain unbowed - as an ITV News team of Senior International Correspondent John Irvine, News Editor Lutfi Abu-Aun, Camera Operator Adam Boyle, and Artem Yelenchuk, Martin Flynn, Andriy Glushko, and Volodymyr Ostapenko report

Kharkiv’s residents remain defiant despite almost constant Russian bombing, as an ITV News crew witnessed in the immediate aftermath of four explosions.

Since the start of the Russian invasion Ukraine's second-largest city has endured a constant bombardment of heavy artillery, with 80 shells a day and more hitting its streets, apartment blocks and transport hubs.

An ITV News team were amongst the first on the scene after an apartment block was hit by a missile.

A man gets on to a train carriage underground in Kharkiv, where he has been living for two months.

Arriving just after another bombing and before the emergency services, residents were taking in what had happened at a residential block as if it were just another day.

Several people, including children, were getting some fresh air when the strike came in – incredibly, there are no reports of any injuries.

The building is in the hardest hit district of a city that's being attacked with, on average, 50 missiles and artillery shells every day.

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Kharkiv is in eastern Ukraine, close to the border with Russia, and for that reason has been one of the hardest-hit places in the country.

In recent weeks and amidst military failings across the country, Moscow has withdrawn its troops across Ukraine and instead focused its efforts in the east, in areas such as Kharkiv.

Vladimir Putin is also planning to take "full control" of southern Ukraine as well as the eastern Donbas region, a top Russian general revealed last week, as Moscow had claimed peace talks with Kyiv have "ground to a halt."

Over the weekend, at least eight people died - including a three-month-old baby - after a Russian missile attack on the southern port city of Odesa.

Kharkiv used to have a population of 1.4 million but right now the pummelling it's getting is keeping people off the streets.

However, despite appearances, Ukraine's second city is far from deserted.

Above ground, much of Kharkiv now resembles an obliterated ruin. Below ground, hundreds of people have been reduced to living in the trains and tunnels of its underground metro system.

One resident, staying underground, told ITV News she endures purely for her son.

“My son gives me the power. He is my strength… it's for him, for his sake,” Yulia said.

“What choice do I have… I can't show him my fear, I have to reassure him everything will be okay.”

The shelling of Kharkiv has been relentless - but if, at the outset, the Russians thought they could bludgeon this city into submission, then two months later, they look very much mistaken.

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