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Report - - Лощина Nuclear Bunker, The Poltva and The Glubochitsa, Ukraine | European and International Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Лощина Nuclear Bunker, The Poltva and The Glubochitsa, Ukraine

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Limerick_Student

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Usually I wouldn't group together several places into one report however my lack of photos from each of these locations mean that there isn't really enough for a standalone report on each one. Therefore I've grouped together these three Ukrainian underground locations below.

Лощина Nuclear Bunker, Lviv

Лощина (pronounced Losheena) is one of the larger nuclear bunkers in Ukraine. The main portion of the bunker is buried 25-30 metres underground with 54 separate underground rooms. Contained within the bunker there is a lift, two stairwells, two decontamination chambers, diesel generators, a ventilation system and a heating system. It was once a military communications centre which explains the sheer size of the place. The majority of the machinery has been looted or badly damaged by fire but some remains intact.


I owe a huge thanks to Bottlehunter and an awesome group of explorers from Explorer Lviv for meeting up with me and lending me waders for the journey inside. Upon arriving in Lviv and having a quick drink in the local digger pub, the five of us loaded up in a car and headed straight for the location in the suburbs surrounding the bunker. Water and loads of hidden debris were the order of the day as we headed underground and slowly waded our way through the mess into the unflooded area of the bunker.

The main portion of the bunker was mostly dry however time had not been kind to what remained down here. The majority of metal has been stolen for scrap and the place has been badly trashed. Also, someone had started a fire down here recently meaning that there was quite a bit of smoke in the air so we had to rush through some places. Other than this though the place was pretty awesome. The whole complex is on a different scale to anything in Ireland. There were over 50 different rooms to explore along the many corridors. Most of the rooms and corridors were empty however some of the original heavy blast doors were still in place along with some machinery and even a collection of old Soviet air filters.

One of the original blast doors
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The stockpile of Soviet air filters stored in one of the back rooms of the bunker
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The Poltva, Lviv

Next up after the nuclear bunker was Lviv's famous underground river, the Poltva. The Poltva runs right through the centre of Lviv and is the river upon which the city was built. In the early 19th century it was decided to cover over the river and divert it underground. Today, thousands of people walk the streets of Lviv not knowing about the large fast flowing river right beneath their feet. Unfortunately the city council of the time reworked Lviv’s sewer system so that it fed straight into the Poltva. This taints the water as it passes from the countryside and makes its journey through the city. Nowadays the river which was once central to the creation of Lviv lies encased in concrete, built over and mostly forgotten. Strangely though there is a pub in the centre of Lviv built over the course of the river which is themed around the river itself. It even has a live feed from the tunnel directly underneath the pub:

The five of us arrived at the access point, waited for the right moment and then piled underground as quick as we could owing to the busy location. Once underground we were able to descend a short side tunnel which brought us to the main tunnel encasing the Poltva. What followed was a long careful walk upstream on the slippery narrow path. The river is quite deep and fast flowing so falling in here wouldn't be ideal! After what seemed like ages the path finally began to rise and widen and concrete grooves started to appear which made things a bit easier. Soon after this we reached our destination, the main underground junction down here where a bridge crosses the stream. This point is directly under the Opera House in the centre of the city and directly downstream from the camera feed which links to the pub above. I wasn't able to capture the location as well as I would have liked due to a fairly weak torch but below are the photos I managed to get.

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The Glubochitsa, Kiev

After departing Lviv, Kiev was the next city on my list. Kiev is a city of unfinished business for me as there were several locations that didn't work out. A revisit is definitely on the cards! Luckily though I did at least get to see the Glubochitsa, one of the prettier underground rivers in the city. I met up with Kiev digger, General Kosmosa on one of my nights in Kiev and along with another digger and his girlfriend, we stocked up on some beer and headed straight underground. We spent more time down here swapping stories and drinking than actually exploring the system but it was a great way to spend the evening. Afterwards we made our way out of the manhole in a fairly blatant location but none of the passersby seemed to care, a world away from what the situation would be like back in Ireland.

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