Governor: Three powerful explosions outside western city of Lviv

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) —
Nights are spent huddling underground from Russian strikes pounding their encircled city into rubble. Daylight hours are devoted to hunting down drinkable water and braving the risk of standing in line for the little food available as shells and bombs rain down.

In the second month of Russia's invasion, this is what now passes for life in Chernihiv, a besieged city in northern Ukraine where death is everywhere.

Russia continues to pound cities throughout Ukraine — explosions rang out Saturday near the western city of Lviv, a destination for refugees that has been largely spared from major attacks.

And Chernihiv isn't quite as synonymous with atrocious human suffering as the pulverised southern city of Mariupol. But similarly blockaded and pounded from afar by Russian troops, Chernihiv's remaining residents are terrified that each blast, bomb and body that lies uncollected on the streets ensnares them in the same macabre trap of inescapable killings and destruction.

“In basements at night, everyone is talking about one thing: Chernihiv becoming (the) next Mariupol,” said 38-year-old resident Ihar Kazmerchak, a linguistics scholar.

He spoke to The Associated Press by cell phone, amid incessant beeps signalling that his battery was dying. The city is without power, running water and heating.

At pharmacies, the lists of medicines no longer available grow longer by the day.

Kazmerchak starts his day in long lines for drinking water, rationed to 10 litres (2 1/2 gallons) per person. People come with empty bottles and buckets for filling when water-delivery trucks make their rounds.

“Food is running out, and shelling and bombing doesn't stop,” he said.

Nestled between the Desna and Dnieper rivers, Chernihiv straddles one of the main roads that Russian troops invading from Belarus used Feb. 24 for what the Kremlin hoped would be a lightning strike onward to the capital, Kyiv, which is just 147 kilometres (91 miles) away.

The city's peace shattered, more than half of the 280,000 inhabitants fled, according to the mayor, unable to be sure when they'd next see its magnificent gold-domed cathedral and other cultural treasures, or even if they still would be standing whenever they return.

The mayor, Vladyslav Atroshenko, estimates Chernihiv's death toll from the war to be in the hundreds.

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