Sleepless in Kyiv

How Ukraine's capital copes with Russia's night-time attacks

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KYIV - Several nights a week, Ms Daria Slavytska packs a yoga mat, blankets and food into a stroller and descends with her two-year-old Emil into the Kyiv subway. While air raid sirens wail above, the 27-year-old tries to snatch a few hours' sleep safely below ground.

For the past two months, Russia has unleashed night-time drone and missile assaults on Kyiv in a summer offensive that is straining the city's air defences, and has its 3.7 million residents exhausted and on edge.

Other towns and villages have seen far worse since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in early 2022 - especially those close to the front line far to the east and south.

Many have been damaged or occupied as Russia advances, and thousands of people have fled to the capital, considered the best-defended city in the country.

But recent heavy attacks are beginning to change the mood. At night, residents rush to metro stations deep underground in scenes reminiscent of the German "Blitz" bombings of London during World War II.

Ms Slavytska has started nervously checking Telegram channels at home even before the city's alarms sound, after she found herself in early July running into the street to reach the metro with explosions already booming in the sky.

The number of people like her taking refuge in the cavernous Soviet-era ticket halls and draughty platforms of Kyiv's 46 underground stations soared after large-scale bombardments slammed the city five times in June.

Previously, the loud air raid alert on her phone sent Emil into bouts of shaking. He would cry "Corridor, corridor, mum. I'm scared. Corridor, mum", Ms Slavytska said. Now, accustomed to the attacks, he says more calmly "Mum, we should go".