Air raid sirens blare as artistic swimmers Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiïva rest on their only day off in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Their rigorous training program should take them all the way to the Paris Olympics. The twin sisters are the stars of the Olympic medal-winning Ukrainian team, which returned to this large northeastern city to train, despite its proximity to the front and regular bombing.
After the Russian invasion, the team moved to Italy, then to Kiev, before returning to Ukraine’s second city, where the situation is more tense than in the capital but where their relatives and friends live. “Sometimes during air alerts we are a little worried about what is happening,” admits Vladyslava. “We feel like it’s war,” she explains.
“There was a lot of bombing last winter. We’ll see what happens. But for now we are staying in Kharkiv,” Vladyslava continues.