'I thought it was the last day of my life' Drone raids bring Putin's wrath to Kyiv

It only occurred to Iryna Yakymehuk to make use of the local bomb shelter after the Shahed kamikaze drone struck her next-door neighbour's flat at 2am yesterday, taking an ugly bite out of the bedroom.

- Daniel Boffey

The 22-year-old had returned to her home in Kyiv's Obolon district from the underwear shop where she works at about 9pm. She ate macaroni while swiping through TikTok before going to bed at 11pm.

Russia has stepped up its aerial attacks on Kyiv in recent days. From the safety of Washington, Donald Trump has warned that Vladimir Putin's response to Ukraine's audacious Operation Spiderweb attack on Russia's nuclear-capable bombers a week earlier "wouldn't be pretty". But Yakymehuk doesn't look for that sort of content on TikTok.

Air raid sirens, and talk of drones and missiles, have been part of life for Kyiv's residents since Putin launched his full-scale invasion three years ago. A car dealership was destroyed by falling debris from a downed missile a couple of years ago, but otherwise the Obolon district in northern Kyiv, 6 miles (10km) from the government buildings in the city centre, has avoided the worst.

"I am a deep sleeper, so I don't normally hear the drones," Yakymehuk said as she queued with others in front of a blue tent where police were taking down - details and volunteers were giving out compensation forms to fill in.

"It's just daily life; I don't think about it," she added, squinting up in the morning sun at the demolition workers dangling from cranes at the corner of the 25-storey apartment building as they sought to make the site safe. The window frame of her bedroom had been blown in and was dangling at an angle.