In this column, we publish photos showing the war in Ukraine and its aftermath. It is often journalists who provide such evidence because they are the ones who go where we cannot to record events and save them from oblivion.

This photo was taken, selected and commented on by Jowita Kiwnik Pargana, a Polish journalist and EU correspondent, author of numerous reports from Ukraine.

While I'm choosing this photo, the Russians are dropping rockets onto Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. As Putin takes revenge for the blast on the Crimean Bridge, this photo has become sadly topical. That night the sirens began to howl at 2 a.m. Oleksiy Kolomyets, a biathlete and USSR-era champion who ran with the Olympic torch at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, woke up his family. They ran down to a shelter that Oleksiy had arranged in the basement of his house. Here he brought down carpets, blankets, duvets, sleeping bags and a supply of food, and hid weapons under a mattress. Oleksiy's wife, Lyudmila, and her grandson fell asleep snuggled on the sofa. Oleksiy kept vigil on the floor. After an hour, the alarm was called off. In the morning the sirens wailed again so, as too often in recent days, they ate breakfast in the basement. After 24 February, bomb shelters became an everyday reality for Ukrainians. Many metro stations, and hospital, theatre and school basements were turned into shelters. Some Ukrainians, like Oleksiy, make shelters in the basements of their homes.

Jowita Kiwnik Pargana, Polish journalist, correspondent for Deutsche Welle in Brussels, author of numerous reports from occupied Ukraine.