Yes, Ukrainians have maps with the location of officially registered caches.

However, during an air alert, not everyone has the opportunity to reach them - due to the long distance or the inability to quickly leave their own apartments in high-rise buildings, because during an alert, you cannot use the elevators.

So the Ukrainians are trying to set up their own bunkers in apartment buildings.

How safe is it and what should you pay attention to in order not to end up in a place of increased danger instead of a warehouse?   

A bomb shelter in the center of Kyiv became famous after it survived the impact of Russian missiles.  

 "The basement of our "Stalinka" withstood the arrival of two "calibres" that fell nearby.

Everyone who was inside was not injured," said Tetyana Koval, a resident of this building.

Neighbors started setting up their shelter in October last year. 

"In 2016, a family from Donbas moved into our house, which had experienced all these horrors back then," Tetyana recalls.

- The head of the family, Mykola Shevtsov, was chosen as the asset manager of the house for his competence in many economic matters.

It was thanks to him that we started preparing the bomb shelter.

When the media started talking about a possible war back in September-October of last year, he offered to put our basement in order.

He said just in case.

Did he have some kind of intelligence or something?".  

Having collected money for repairs, the neighbors took out the garbage from the basement, cleaned the walls of fungus, put the floor and the bathroom in order - the toilet, the sink.

They checked the electrical wiring, made a ventilation duct. 

"Our basement met all the standards of the State Emergency Service.

There was ventilation, there were no gas pipes, any engineering communications or equipment, there was access to water supply and drainage.

And there were two exits.

We felt how important it is on our own skin - when the explosion happened, one of the doors collapsed," Tetyana recalls. 

The room was also divided into blocks: household, bathroom, main ("hall") and a separate block for animals.

"We have an electric kettle and an electric stove in the utility block - when the alarm was prolonged, the neighbors cooked food on it," says Tetyana Koval.

- Of course, small pots with technical and drinking water, candles, matches, salt, sugar, flashlights, batteries, and a first-aid kit - we need to talk about it separately."  

When the blast waves destroyed the walls, windows and roof of the building, their debris injured people who were outside the bomb shelter. 

"Neighbors came to us covered in blood, and we tried, as best we could, to give them first aid until the emergency services and the ambulance arrived," the woman recalls.

- We had bandages, medical napkins, antipyretics, heart drugs and two cans of peroxide in the first-aid kit.

Well, the peroxide disappeared in one minute.

Therefore, I advise you to have more peroxide or liquid in the first-aid kit with which you can treat the wounds.”     

The storage room can accommodate about a hundred people.

In the main block there are benches, armchairs, chairs, mattresses.

"After the start of the war, we laid pallets on the concrete floor in the "hall", and put cardboard boxes on top, and covered the walls with large cardboard boxes. People brought sleeping bags, sheets, pillows, armchairs, chairs, folding chairs, whatever they had there," - remembers Tatiana.

During the war, pets suffer a lot because they do not understand what is happening, and because of this they feel a lot of stress.

They were also taken care of: each animal had its own cage with everything necessary - beds, bowls for water and feed.

"Dogs, cats, birds - we didn't have any, - recalls Tatiana. - One day I woke up at night from a strange sound and was alarmed: what was it? And it turned out that the neighbors brought a chipmunk, and he was spinning the wheel!"      

Soon the shelter became popular among people from neighboring houses.

And not only that.

In the first months of the war, friends of the residents of the building from other districts and relatives from the Kyiv region spent the night there.

"We accept everyone, because we understand that the most important thing is life, and we, Ukrainians, need to protect ourselves! - emphasizes Tatiana. - We, Ukrainians, are very good at grouping together and helping each other." 

However, not all basements can be used as a shelter.

The State Emergency Service warns that it is not possible to hide in the basements of buildings where there are engineering systems: heating, water supply and sewage, or electricity supply systems.

Also, basements without ventilation and smoke removal cannot provide a long-term stay of a large number of people.

In addition, it is important to have several entrances to the basement - if there is only one, people will not be able to evacuate in the event of a blockage. 

In August, President Zelensky signed draft law No. 7398, according to which all developers are required to design and build bomb shelters in all new residential buildings.

The Israeli experience can be useful here.

Nina Nudeliz from Odessa has been living in Israel for thirty years and knows well how the civil security system is organized there: "Bomb shelters are everywhere - in any building, regardless of its purpose, if there are people there. Public transport stops are also fortified to the extent that they can to serve as shelters for those who find themselves in the street during shelling. It is very important to teach the population a clear algorithm of actions in case of shelling, and it starts in kindergarten. Even small children here know well what to do in case of an air raid." 

Moreover, during the construction of apartments and houses, Israeli safety standards stipulate that one of the rooms can be a shelter in case of a rocket attack. 

Protective shutters in the houses of Tel Aviv.

Photo by Inna Goldstein   

Protective shutters in the houses of Tel Aviv.

Photo by Inna Goldstein   

"These are like ordinary rooms, only with very strong walls.

They stand one above the other, a kind of riser of bomb shelters.

A regular window has a strong shutter that can be closed in case of alarm.

The door is very massive and strong, with a wide rubber band on the edges, which seals it when closed, which makes it possible to withstand the blast wave.

People often make children's bedrooms in such rooms so as not to wake up the children at night if they are alarmed.

My daughter has a dressing room there, and mattresses are thrown on the floor," says Nini Nudelize.  

So, having an aggressive neighbor, we have to adapt to the current realities in every possible way.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to build modern bomb shelters throughout the country in a short period of time.

Therefore, the question of your security and the ability to arrange it is a common cause of Ukrainians who live on with faith in victory.