Stephen Fry evacuated to air raid shelter during Ukraine trip

Actor Stephen Fry was evacuated from his hotel room in Ukraine in the middle of the night and rushed to an air raid shelter amid a Russian attack on the city of Kyiv

Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry was rushed to a bomb shelter during his trip to Ukraine amid reports of a fresh Russian attack on Kyiv.

The actor was in the city to give a speech at a conference on mental health organised by Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on Wednesday (06.09.23) and he's revealed he was evacuated from his hotel room in the middle of the night and taken to a shelter in the basement after the alarm was raised over a possible bombing raid amid the ongoing war with Russia.

Fry posted about the experience in an update on his Instagram page, writing: "Awoken at 4:45 am by an insistent voice ordering all at the hotel to go down to the air raid shelter.

"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 I can detect ... "

He went on to reveal that after an hour inside the shelter, there was an update which urged everyone to stay put. Fry added: "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 the their rooms 10 minutes ago but are now sheepishly appearing again … "

The 'Wilde' star later admitted he didn't think to bring his laptop with him to the shelter while other guests were seen keeping themselves entertained with their computers.

The all clear was eventually sounded and Fry was able to leave the shelter, updating his followers on Instagram by writing: "The all clear sounds and life goes on in Kyiv … "