"Moles in the dark": survival and escape from the Mariupol steelworks

Nataliya and Volodymyr Babeush, who were evacuated from Azovstal plant in Mariupol show children's drawings during an interview with Reuters, amid Russia's invasion in Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine May 9, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine (Reuters) - Five storeys below the besieged Azovstal steelworks, Ukrainian soldiers told Nataliya Babeush she had a few minutes to prepare to escape the underground bunker she called home for more than two months.

The 35-year-old grabbed little more than a handful of children's drawings: some sketches of flowers and food that had helped to cheer dozens of civilians who had sheltered for weeks in one corner of the vast, dimly lit concrete warren.