Fry spent two hours in the bomb shelter of his Kyiv hotel after Russia launched its latest in a series of strikes on the Ukrainian capital, and he shared his experience on Instagram. After the air alarm woke him at 4:45 a.m., the Briton headed down to the hotel bomb shelter. He noted that upon his arrival in Kyiv, he was advised to install an app that alerts him to air raid warnings. The writer added that the hotel's shelter was equipped with a coffee machine and sunbeds.
Fry did not personally hear any sounds of drones or missiles, though there were reports of explosions in the city. “Awoken at 4:45 am by an insistent voice ordering all at the hotel to go down to the air raid shelter,” he wrote. “So here we are. Someone showed me an app to download: as you can see, agrees with the order to stay sheltered. So here we all are down in the basement of the hotel. Coffee machine. Loungers. People laughing and chattering quite happily. No sound of drones or inbound missiles that can detect...”
He later updated, “An hour later and a no all-clear. In fact a new announcement ‘Your attention please, there are explosions in the city. Stay in the shelter."‘ Some hotel guests had shrugged and gone back up to their rooms 10 minutes ago but are now sheepishly appearing again…”
He also noted with amusement that, unlike other more prepared hotel guests who brought laptops to the shelter, he did not think to take his own computer during the rushed descent to safety in the middle of the night. “I wasn't smart enough to think of bringing a laptop down... the more seasoned citizens knew better.” After the all-clear, Fry left the hotel and took a picture of the cafe, where guests gather on the summer terraces in the morning. "The all-clear sounds and life goes on in Kyiv." Fry will host the First Ladies and Gentlemen Summit in Kyiv on Sept. 6. The event’s theme is Mental Health: Resilience and Fragility of the Future.