flour. and then they would make their own bread in this oven. that s what they lived on for more than a month. five adults and four children hid in their underground bunker. this is where ivan heard weeks of artillery blasts and cries for help. the sounds of war that will haunt survivors forever. translator: i shrefpt here. my sister and my mom slept here. and another family slept here too. we tried to curl up and sleep here together. sometimes when things got really scary, our dads would come down and stay with us. reporter: ivan s grandfather said russian soldiers told him the family would be killed if they tried to escape. police say more than 50 people were killed here. many of them shot as they tried to run away. the death toll is expected to climb. how frightening was this experience for you? translator: right now?
as war rages all around them, children and teenagers in ukraine are facing a harsh reality and real suffering. things like burying their family and friends. what is it like for them living through these more errors of war, trying to survive any way they can? cnn s ed lavandera found out one story. reporter: hidden behind a row of homes in the town of borodianka, police exhumed the body of nine ukrainians killed by russian soldiers. they re documenting evidence of war crimes. this mother stands over her son s body left in a makeshift grave. on the other side of the graves, we notice ivan staring quietly at the grave of another victim. one of your friends is buried here? ivan says his friend was killed
by russian shrapnel as she tried to escape the city. the cross bearing katia s name was made by his grandfather who dug this shallow grave. translator: i can t take this well. i cried, but i m not showing this. i feel weak because i cannot do anything. reporter: ivan is 16 years old. in two months of war, he s witnessed the innocence of childhood die before his eyes. watching ivan makes you wonder how a teenage mind copes with the horror in front of him. his family says to understand we must see what they experienced. ivan s family never left this backyard shed for more than 30 days while russian troops occupied the city. ivan s grandfather and father showed us how they survived on nothing but home made bread. so basically they would take the raw grain and grind it down into flour, or a version of