Fears Rise for Civilian Safety as Ukraine Investigates Locked Air-Raid Shelters
U.S. News & World Report KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Concerns around civilian safety spiked in Ukraine on Saturday, as officials announced that an inspection had found nearly a quarter of the countrys air-raid shelters locked or unusable, just days after a woman in Kyiv allegedly died waiting outside a shuttered shelter during a Russian missile barrage.
The Ukrainian interior ministry said through its press service Saturday that of the over 4,800 shelters it had inspected, 252 were locked and a further 893 unfit for use.
That same day, the Kyiv regional prosecutors office reported that four people were detained in a criminal probe into the 33-year-olds death on Thursday outside the locked shelter. The prosecutors office said that one person, a security guard who had failed to unlock the doors, remained under arrest, while three others, including a local official, had been put under house arrest.
According to the prosecutors office, the suspects face up to eight years in prison for official negligence that led to a persons death.
