Out of the dark: the Azovstal survivors

Spike, a quarrelsome dachshund, got something every meal, even as the humans trapped in the bunker under Azovstal steel works were wasting away from hunger.

- Emma Graham-Harrison

By the end there was so little food and water that adults were eating one tiny meal a day. Two cups of macaroni went into 10 litres of water, and that “soup” fed 30 people. The children ate twice. Still, they all shared with their pet.

“Someone would give him a spoon of porridge and everyone in the family would give him three or four spoons when they ate. Luckily he is small,” said Olena Chekhonatski.

She fled underground to escape shelling at the start of the war with her husband Yegor and two sons, 12-year-old Artem and 17-year-old Dmitry. “I was never a dog person before Spike arrived,” she said with a rueful glance at the dog she starved herself to keep alive, as he bounded along the sandy shore of the Dnieper River on the family's first day of freedom since late February.

The family were among the very last group of civilians officially evacuated from Azovstal, arriving in Ukrainian-held territory on the evening before Vladimir Putin declared at a military parade in Moscow his war was a "sacred" mission to liberate people like them."What liberation? What was the reason for all that?” Olena asked. “Our first feeling is disbelief we made it out. The last days we were losing hope, the shelling was so heavy it seemed impossible to get out,” Yegor added.