KYIV, Ukraine – Six and a half feet down a ladder inside a small barn at the back of Oleksandr Kadet’s home is an underground room with a cement hatch that he hopes he will never have to use. .
Over the past two weeks, Mr. Kadet, 32, said that he and his wife, who live outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, had been preparing for the possibility of a nuclear attack by hoarding in their room – a well. old that they renovated into. a bunker – with bottled water, canned goods, radio and electrical outlets.
“We are more worried now, especially after yesterday’s attacks,” Mr Kadet said on Tuesday, a day later. a series of Russian missile attacks throughout Ukraine. “But we think that in the event of a nuclear explosion, we will be able to survive if we stay in the bunker for a while.”
Concerns about escalation increased on Saturday following an attack on The Kerch Strait Bridge is 12 miles long connecting Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, Moscow was annexed in 2014. Initially, Ukrainians celebrated, but that quickly gave way to concerns that such a brazen attack on a symbol of President Vladimir V. Putin’s rule could lead to a serious retaliation.
However, even before these recent events, concerns about the possibility of a nuclear disaster were increasingly entrenched in the Ukrainian national psyche. The scary thing is that Russia can too use of tactical nuclear weapons or launch a conventional attack on one of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
US officials have said that they think the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons is lowand senior US officials say they have seen no evidence that Mr. Putin is moving any of his nuclear assets.
On Sunday, Putin called the bridge attack a “terrorist attack aimed at destroying extremely important civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation”.
But his spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, appeared to have allayed fears of a nuclear retaliation, saying the attack on the bridge was not within the scope of Russia’s defense doctrine. such a response.
Last month, Putin raises fears that he could use nuclear weapons when he warned that he would “use all means at our disposal to defend Russia and our people,” if Russian-controlled territory was threatened.
“This is not a hoax,” he said.
Days later, Russia illegal annexation of four Ukrainian territories.
Mr. Kadet, who noted that he started preparing two weeks ago, said it felt better to have an action plan.
“Psychologically it’s easier because you know you’re at least prepared for it somehow,” he said. “It’s not a guarantee it’ll save you, but at least you’re ready.”
Residents of Kyiv say they were feeling wary even before the most recent missile attacks there on Monday.
Immediately after the bridge attack, many Ukrainians were share their joy on social media. They celebrated their victory in bars in the capital over the weekend and took selfies in front of posters of the burning bridge.
But anxiety soon set in.
“I’m really scared about how the Russians will respond to this,” said Krystina Gevorkova, 30, who was shopping with her friends in Kyiv on Sunday. “Before that it felt safer here,” she added. “Now, I feel like something is about to happen.”
Kyiv has for months been spared Russia’s worst onslaught while Moscow focuses its attention on southeastern Ukraine. But on Monday, a Russian missile struck just a few blocks from where Ms. Gevorkova spoke.
She said she had read about how to stay safe during a nuclear war, but she doubted it would help.
“We couldn’t really do anything,” she said.
In recent months, the war has become distant for Kyiv, as life returns to normal after Russian forces were driven out of parts of northeastern Ukraine. However, the city is also slowly preparing for a potential nuclear attack.
Kyiv City Council said on Friday that potassium iodide pills would be distributed to residents in the event of a nuclear incident “based on medical recommendations”, adding that the drug was also available in other states. pharmacy in the city.
Potassium iodide is used to saturate a person’s thyroid gland with iodine so that radioactive iodine inhaled or ingested after exposure will not be retained by the gland.
Alina Bozhedomova, 23, a pharmacist in Kyiv, said that customers come here every day looking for the pills, but added, “I haven’t seen people panic about it.”
Some elementary schools have advised parents to prepare emergency bags for their children to bring to school.
Nadiia Stelmakh, 50, who works in a home market, said a mother came to her with a magnetic list that included rubber gloves, ponchos, boot covers, tissues and wet wipes. and flashlight.
“People really care right now,” she said. Her husband, Volodymyr Stelmakh, who has another stall nearby, agrees.
“I have an emergency bag packed,” he said, “but I think if a nuclear threat is imminent, you won’t have time to run away.
After growing concern about the security of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the southeastern part of the country in recent weeks, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine issue guidance on how to respond to a nuclear incident.
The danger of nuclear radiation can feel very real in Ukraine, a country that still have scars of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Chernobyl is only about 60 miles north of Kyiv.
And some people who have experienced a life-threatening nuclear launch first-hand say they, more likely than anyone, understand the full risk of nuclear exposure. Oleksandr, 55, who asked not to use his last name, says he and his family fled Chernobyl for Kyiv shortly after the crisis, when he was just 18 years old.
His family closely followed instructions to move south, when the wind was pushing the radioactive material north, and he said that was the only reason they escaped unscathed.
“Now, people here are really not ready. People don’t know what to do,” he said. “Not enough information.”
He owns a market stall selling household necessities and says many people have come in the past two weeks to prepare for the nuclear disaster, buying flashlights, batteries, knives, radios and small camp stoves.
While some are preparing for the worst, others remain optimistic that Russia will never carry out such an extreme attack, which would provoke international outrage.
Dmytro Yastrub, 31, said he was more concerned about Mr. Putin’s use of conventional weapons to target Kyiv.
“I guess something will happen” after the bridge attack, he said, as he stood outside a bar in downtown Kyiv on Sunday night with a group of friends. However, he added, the risk of a nuclear attack was not on his mind.
Svetlana Zozulia, 47, and her husband, Vladyslav Zozulia, 37, were walking in central Kyiv with their daughter, Anastasiia, 11, on Sunday night. Zozulia said she tries to stay optimistic and does not believe Putin will launch a nuclear attack on Ukraine.
But she bought potassium iodide tablets as a precaution, she said.
“I think our success has bothered him,” said Ms. Zozulia. “But there’s also a threat to him if he chooses a nuclear strike.”
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contribution report
