Stephen Fry is rushed to bomb shelter in Kyiv as the city is rocked by explosions during visit

Stephen Fry took cover in a bomb shelter in Kiev this week amid a Russian attack while visiting the Ukrainian capital for a conference on mental health.

The actor and comedian, 66, told how he was jolted awake at 4:45am on Wednesday morning by hotel staff urging him to go to the basement shelter amid airstrikes.

He was quickly ushered into the shelter along with other hotel guests, whom Fry reported were remarkably relaxed despite the imminent danger.

“People laughed and chattered very merrily,” Fry mused.

“As far as I know there are no signs of drones or incoming missiles,” he said, adding that the shelter was well equipped with coffee machines and sofas – a testament to how the threat of missile strikes has become part of everyday life in Ukraine. .

After an hour at the shelter, Fry said everyone was shocked by another announcement.

‘Your attention please! There are explosions in the city. Stay in the shelter,” the announcement read, prompting some hotel guests who had dared to return to their rooms minutes earlier to “sheepishly” return underground.

“I didn’t have the foresight to carry a laptop,” Fry admitted, “but the more seasoned citizens knew better.”

Fortunately, the authorities finally gave permission and life in Kiev resumed its course. Fry documented the moment with a photo of a café and heaved a sigh of relief.

Before this adrenaline-pumping incident, Fry had been in Kiev to co-host a conference initiated by Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine.

The event was designed to address mental health issues during the war – a cause dear to Fry’s heart as chairman of mental health charity Mind.

He described the conference as a “true gathering of neurologists, social scientists, psychology, and practitioners in the field of mental health trauma.”

Earlier this week, Fry even witnessed a daring surgical operation on a wounded Ukrainian soldier, in which doctors courageously ignored an airstrike warning to save a life.

He praised the “extraordinary humor” and “profound, unwavering determination” of the Ukrainian people in the face of adversity.

While Fry took the stage in Kiev, Russian artillery targeted a crowded market in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens, according to Ukrainian officials.

The attack, which targeted the Mercury shopping mall in the city of Donetsk, sparked an inferno that ripped through market stalls and destroyed several cars.

Shocking footage of the incident, shared by locals on Telegram, showed terrified residents leaving the scene as orange flames raged in the background, billowing thick black smoke.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said aid workers extinguished the blaze, but not before more than 30 stalls were damaged.

Twenty stores, power lines, an administrative building and the floor of an apartment building were damaged, according to the attorney general’s office, as rescuers continued to search through the rubble for more survivors.

In a brief statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “At present, Russian terrorists’ artillery has killed 16 people in the city of Kostiantynivka, Donetsk region. A regular market. Stores. A pharmacy. People who have done nothing wrong.

Many injured.

“This Russian evil must be defeated as soon as possible.”

The death toll later rose to 17 killed and 32 injured.

Konstianynivka is ten kilometers from the town of Bakhmut, which has long been the epicenter of some of the bloodiest and hardest-fought battles of the war.