A day in Lviv
After the first air raid siren we were walking into town. A car stopped to let us cross at a zebra crossing and the driver in the car behind blared his horn furiously. He was a young man with a blank-faced woman sitting beside him, and the look on his face was pure rage. Where does that kind of anger and desperate rush come from, with all that is happening in this country?
Once we arrived in the city centre we got onto a trolley bus and waited for it to leave. We heard two distant explosions and then the scream of a woman, who had probably come from somewhere that is regularly shelled. Lviv is seen as a place of relative safety but there is always the fear of attack. People got out of the bus and looked up at the clear, blue sky. However, the bus driver decided to drive off pretty quickly, which seemed like the best thing to do.
One of the missiles hit a critical energy infrastructure facility, according to the regional governor, which is the usual target, and another was said to have fallen near a health facility in Lviv region. No-one was hurt, as far as we know, but other regions will not have not been as lucky.
During this first air raid alert, I had a scan of my hip in a shiny, newly built medical centre. When we arrived we were immediately ushered back out of the front door, so that we could put plastic covers over our boots. Ukraine’s air force command, reportedly, were shooting down 61 out of 70 cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones, but it was important that we didn't tramp snow onto the clean floor!
After the scan and the first air raid alert were over we walked through a hilly park - cold, but lovely in the crisp snow. We thought we would work up an appetite for lunch but, once we reached the shopping centre and Bob was ready to eat a horse, the second air raid siren sounded and everything closed!
As we were walking through the park our Polish friend, Tomasz, called us to discuss the current situation in Ukraine. There are all kinds of rumours about what Putin might be being planning over the next days or weeks, as the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine draws nearer. We talked about what we can do to try to keep us safe, which is difficult because we don't know what's going to happen. We may make some changes to our schedule but we won't stop delivering humanitarian aid.
I cleaned the kitchen windows when we returned home so that we make the most of the sunlight. We were going out for a pizza with our friend, Mo, but she got stuck on the border, transporting cats - we'll have to wait until tomorrow to hear that story!!
And this was our day in Lviv.
We found this during our walk in the park - a symbol of love, which has to be better than hate...
However, just as I am about to publish, the fourth air raid siren of the day has sounded.
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