Despite constant bombings, residents of Kharkiv, Ukraine, have found opportunities for joy and emotional release.
The rituals of ordinary life persist, including open-air graduation ceremonies for children.
People find outlets for expression above ground and below. Dancers and skateboarders glide across public squares.
But a new way of life has emerged underground, with operas staged in a garage and rock shows in basement bars.
Ambition endures, even as Russian bombardments produce devastating consequences. “It’s war, but no one is going to stop us from living.”
Despite Relentless Russian Attack, Life in Kharkiv Endures Underground
Constant Méheut and
Daniel Berehulak, Constant Méheut and Oleksandra Mykolyshyn spent several days in Kharkiv, Ukraine, this summer to report this article.
In the war-ravaged city of Kharkiv, where the echoes of air-raid alerts are commonplace, an unlikely sound filled a dimly lit underground garage on a recent morning: the soaring voices of soprano and baritone singers.
Every few moments, the singers were interrupted by the impassioned commands of their director, Oleksii Duhinov, as he paced a makeshift stage during a rehearsal for Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro.”
“You’re standing like a stone!” he shouted at a baritone, grabbing his shoulders as he urged him to gesticulate more while singing. Nearby, fellow performers watched with amusement, seated on rows of black plastic chairs on a gray concrete floor.
This was the new stage of Kharkiv’s National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, now operating dozens of feet underground in a garage where trucks once delivered costumes and scenery. The grand auditorium several floors above, which once held 1,500 people, has been largely empty since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
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