Twin ‘terror’

Calm the waters: Ukrainian Olympic artistic swimmers Vladyslava (left) and Maryna Aleksiiva during a training session in Kyiv on April 6, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. — AFP

KHARKIV (Ukraine): Air raid sirens wailed as artistic swimmers Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva rested on their only free day from a rigorous training programme in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

The sisters are stars of Ukraine’s Olympic-medal-winning team, which returned to the city to train for next summer’s Paris Olympics, despite proximity to the front and regular bouts of shelling.