STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Next, we have a story of the frequent air raid sirens in Ukraine. These sirens are a matter of life and death to Ukrainians. They also, by the way, can be disturbing when heard here in the United States, so take that as a warning. Yet some Ukrainians have turned the alarms into little pieces of music. What a perfect story for this radio station. NPR's Greg Myre reports from Kyiv.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: The air raid sirens warning of a Russian assault can go off any time or any place in Ukraine. One recently began to wail as a 28-year-old singer, Diana Oganesyan, was walking late at night in the capitol Kyiv.
DIANA OGANESYAN: I was on my way home from my friend's birthday, and then air siren just caught me in the middle of the street when there were no shelters nearby. So, like, I kind of stuck there.
MYRE: As a singer, she did what came naturally. She began to harmonize with the siren and recorded herself on her phone.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIR RAID SIREN)
OGANESYAN: (Vocalizing).
MYRE: She posted it on social media, and it's gone viral.
OGANESYAN: I didn't expect it to get so much attention. Of course, I'm not happy that it's happening, but I'm glad that my voice and the power of social medias bring attention to the war in Ukraine.
MYRE: She says her small act reflects the resilience of Ukrainians.
OGANESYAN: No matter what's happening, life has never stopped. We're making art, we open businesses. Those guys are, like, opening the restaurants now, making the festivals, drawing the flowers around the holes from the bullets. This is what we do.
MYRE: When Russia launches major air strikes, as it's been doing recently, residents in Kyiv and other large cities will go underground into subways and wait out the assault. Sometimes they spontaneously break into song, as they did here in Kyiv, expressing their love of the city.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
MYRE: In addition to the actual siren, Ukraine's government created the air alert app for cell phones, which tells residents to seek shelter.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
MYRE: So how are Ukrainians coping?
OLEXANDER VELGHUS: Previously, we always tried to find like a bomb shelter.
MYRE: Olexander Velghus, who's 27, says like most Ukrainians, he took the sirens very seriously when the Russian air strikes began. That often meant getting out of bed on a freezing night and walking with his girlfriend 100 yards to an office building with a secure basement. How do they respond now?
VELGHUS: We just accept our fate (laughter).
MYRE: Russian air strikes can last for hours and come most frequently during the night. The initial siren often means Ukraine has detected Russian war planes, armed with long-range missiles, taking off hundreds of miles away deep inside Russia. After 15 minutes or so, the phone app usually provides an update. It can be an all-clear for your area or an ominous notice saying your region is a target. Then another half hour can pass before you hear window shaking booms as Ukrainian air defenses launch missiles at the incoming Russian weapons. Again, Olexander Velghus.
VELGHUS: Basically, we wake up when we hear explosions. And then we decide whether we want to go to the shelter or not.
MYRE: He's in Kyiv, where air defenses are extremely good. The shoot-down rate is over 90%, but other parts of Ukraine are much more vulnerable. The singer, Diana Oganesyan, now divides her time between Kyiv and London and still performs in Ukraine's capital under her stage name, Melancholydi.
OGANESYAN: We're still making music. We're still making art. It doesn't mean it's easy. The conditions are worse, but they still would do it because we are Ukrainians. That's what we do.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIR RAID SIREN)
OGANESYAN: (Vocalizing).
MYRE: Greg Myre, NPR News, Kyiv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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