Kharkiv sits just 30 kilometers from the Russian border, close enough that air raid sirens have become a fixture of daily routine. DW correspondent Carolina Chimoy visits the city to see how residents keep functioning under constant threat. A subway station has been converted into a school, with children studying underground while trains still run nearby. The film follows Kharkiv's mayor as he describes the logistics of running a city that must operate both above and below ground, including plans for a subterranean recreational park. A theater company now rehearses ballet in an underground space, relocated for safety. The film also visits a cemetery, where the human cost of the ongoing Russian advances becomes visible in rows of fresh graves. Rather than focusing on front-line combat, the piece stays close to the practical adaptations of ordinary life: schooling, performance, mourning, and the sirens that interrupt all three without warning.