Notes From the Kharkiv Underground
The subway’s surfaces aren’t damp, but a thick humidity is chokingly palpable. The air tastes and smells like the collective exhale of hundreds of people.
KHARKIV, Ukraine — Only those too infirm or without the means to leave their homes are bearing witness to Kharkiv’s blooming springtime outside their windows. Many residential streets are empty, vaguely reminiscent of some post-apocalyptic film.
Beside the sounds of outgoing Ukrainian ordnance and impacts of Russian artillery, large swaths of the city are eerily still. Belowground, however, the subway system is teeming with life.
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