Ukraine 🇺🇦 War: Children living, learning and growing up in kharkiv's underground metro station

Sky News gets a glimpse of the harrowing impact the war is having on children who have barely seen the sky for months.

By Mark Austin, presenter, and Nick Stylianou, producer, in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine

The children hiding underground from Russia

Hundreds of children survive underground in Kharkiv, where they have been sheltering for two months in a city under constant attack.

A metro station is now their home, school, playground and refuge. It is as safe as it gets in Ukraine's second city just 20 miles from the Russian border, but 12-year-old Nicole Bulizhenko wants to tell us it is no life at all.

"I can't express how worried I am. It's so painful. I worry about everyone I love," she says.

When asked about the people attacking her city, Nicole simply says: "They are not human."

Her cousin, Lisa, is also 12 years old and she sits beside Nicole, squeezing her hand in support. Nicole's older sister, in her twenties, watches on with her own child, aged five.

Image:Iryna and the children in the metro

Their parents are still living at their home with three dogs. Once a week, if it's safe, the girls are allowed back for a bath.

As she tells us about her life now, it's clear that the things Nicole wants to say have become too difficult. Tears are rolling down her face as she explains how there are six of her family still in Kharkiv. It is a glimpse of the harrowing impact the war is having on children here.