I haven't slept for days' Kharkiv residents reel under drone strikes

While US-led peace negotiations threaten to carve up Ukraine, deadly Russian attacks continue-such as those on the country's second city last week - amid deep cynicism about the process

- By Luke Harding

KHARKIV Photographs by Julia Kochetova A BOUT 1AM LAST FRIDAY, Yuliia Verbytska woke to the sound of an air raid siren.

She grabbed her children Dmitry, 17, and Olexiy, 12 - and sat in the corridor, checking her phone. In the sky above came an ominous whine. Minutes later, a Russian drone crashed into the disused soap factory down the road in Polyova Street. There was an enormous explosion.

"We don't have a shelter in our building, so we hide behind two concrete walls. All the neighbours sit together. You wonder if this is your last moment," she said. The raid followed a massive attack a day earlier on Verbytska's home, Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, and on the capital, Kyiv, where 12 people were killed. "I haven't slept for two days," she said wearily.

Exhausted residents sweeping up glass and fixing broken panels pointed out that the latest attack came hours after a post from Donald Trump on social media. It said: "Vladimir, STOP." Russia's president, it seemed, had ignored Trump's rare rebuke. Despite peace negotiations and an appeal by Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for a month-long ceasefire, the Russians were bombing as usual.

One of the damaged buildings belongs to a charity, Heart of Kharkiv, where Verbytska volunteers. Bits of concrete fell amid clothes and shoes.

Children's drawings were blown from a noticeboard. The charity's wheelchairs and pushchairs survived unscathed. "I don't believe in promises or words. Not from Trump or anybody else. I don't really have much faith in anything any more," Verbytska said gloomily.