Fears rise for civilian safety as Ukraine investigates locked air-raid shelters

By SUSIE BLANN
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Concerns around civilian safety have spiked in Ukraine, as officials announced that an inspection had found nearly a quarter of the country’s air-raid shelters locked or unusable, just days after Russian missiles allegedly killed a woman in Kyiv as she waited outside a shuttered shelter. The Ukrainian interior ministry said through its press service that of the “over 4,800” shelters it inspected, 252 were locked and a further 893 “unfit for use.” That same day, the Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office reported that four people were detained in a criminal probe into the 33-year-old woman’s death on Thursday.