A gentle tune from a violin played by a musician who has been dubbed Ukraine’s “cellar violinist” is a lullaby for a child sheltered in the dark basement of an apartment building in the besieged Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

Vera Lytovchenko has become an internet icon of resilience as images of the concert violinist playing in the basement bomb shelter have inspired an international audience via social media.

When the heavy Russian bombing of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv started two weeks ago, Lytovchenko, her professor father and neighbours sought safety in their building’s basement.

“Bombs can fall everywhere in our city, so we decided to go down in the cellar,” the 39-year-old violinist told The Associated Press via Skype Wednesday during a brief respite from the bombing during a temporary cease-fire. “We’re about 12 people now. We have little boys. We have teenagers. We have old women.”