Last year, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine unfolded, many other people in the city of Kharkiv moved underground to escape the bombing.
Along with their families, pets and a handful of their belongings, citizens of Ukraine’s second largest city and surrounding areas have camped out at the Heroes of Labor metro station.
Among those seeking refuge were 10-year-old Vika and her family, who shared their story in the August 2022 documentary FRONTLINE Ukraine: Life Under Russian Attack. Filmed in Kharkiv during the first 3 months of the invasion, the documentary chronicles the war. reports of civilians caught up in shelling; first responders risking their own lives; and people, like Vika, looking underground.
“We sense there is a war,” Vika said after moving to the subway station converted into a bomb shelter with her mother, grandmother and younger brother Misha. “But we don’t perceive why it started. “
Where are Vika and her circle of relatives now, almost a year after Russian forces first attacked Kharkiv?
An updated edition of Ukraine: Life under Attack from Russia, which airs Tuesday, Feb. 14 on PBS stations and also broadcasts, provides answers. Kharkiv, the updated documentary revisits many of the other people portrayed in the original film and tells how the months of war have reshaped their lives in a city that bears deep scars from the Russian invasion.
As the excerpt above shows, Vika no longer lives underground, but is still waiting to return to normal. She, her mother and Misha fled Ukraine for Finland; his grandparents stayed and live in the suburbs of Kharkiv.
The circle of relatives remains connected through phone calls and video calls in which lightness and preference are intertwined, as the fragment shows.
When talking about starting Finnish classes, Misha says, “Why do I want to be informed?I will return to Ukraine,” as Vika playfully covers her mouth and tries to silence him. “I don’t see the point,” he adds, prompting laughter from his grandmother.
When Vika and Misha’s grandmother asks them if they miss home, their mother replies, “Yes, a lot. “
Almost a year after their lives were turned upside down, the circle of relatives remains resolved.
“Spring is coming,” the children’s grandmother said on the video call. “So victory comes and you’ll go home. “
Once she finishes, her grandmother wipes tears from her eyes.
“I miss having them at home, their noise, the chaos,” he says. “Thank God they are still alive. We will see them again. “
Find out what happened to some of the other people whose stories were featured in the original edition of Ukraine: Life Under Attack from Russia in the following YouTube video:
And watch the full and updated edition of Ukraine: Life under Russian Attack on pbs. org/frontline or on the PBS video app. The documentary, a Basement Films production for GBH/FRONTLINE in agreement with Channel 4, was filmed, produced and directed by Mani Benchelah and Patrick Tombola; produced in Ukraine through Volodymyr Pavlov; and directed in London by Teresa Smith. The editor is Agnieszka Liggett. La production director is Leah Gowns. The executive manufacturers are Ben de Pear, Edward Watts and Cate Blanchett. The editor-in-chief and executive manufacturer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.