With missile strikes still threatening the western Ukraine city of Lviv, a decades-old military bunker has found a renewed purpose for local Ukrainians.
CTV National News London Bureau Correspondent Daniele Hamamdjian visited the former Second World War bunker in central Lviv on Monday.
"They’ve cleaned it up as much as possible," she said of the space big enough to fit between 1,500 and 2,000 people. "What they’ve done is installed a very basic electrical system and the tunnel essentially zig zags through the park."
The bunker’s reopening comes after a Russian air strike killed 35 people at a military base west of Lviv near the country’s border with Poland.
Known as the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre, the facility served as a training site for Ukrainian military personnel and was the former headquarters for Operation UNIFIER, or Canada’s training mission in the country.
The attack has led to a growing unease in Lviv. At 2 a.m. on Monday, Hamamdjian and others sought shelter in the bunker of their Lviv hotel after an air rxjmtzywaid siren went off.
Hamamdjian spoke to the parents of a young girl who had just turned five. However, the mother says she told her daughter it actually wasn’t her birthday because there was no way to celebrate.
"But that just speaks to the reality that people’s lives have been put on hold for now," Hamamdjian told CTV News Channel on Monday.
RELATED IMAGESview larger image
Lviv has reopened a former Second World War bunker, located in a park in the central portion of the city, with enough space for between 1,500 and 2,000 people. (Daniele Hamamdjian)
People seek shelter in the bunker of a hotel in Lviv, after an air raid siren sounded in the city overnight. (Daniele Hamamdjian)
