'We heard the blasts and suddenly we were covered in shards of glass'

JULY 31 was what has become a typical attack on the Ukrainian capital — the descent of drones after dark followed by a barrage of missiles at dawn.

- JOHN MARONE

“It’s like they waited for people to come back home from the bomb shelters before launching the missiles,” noted a friend who lives in Solomonsky district, one of the most frequently attacked in the city.

The result was mass civilian carnage, with 31 killed, including five children, the youngest only six. Around 160 others were hospitalised. Well into the next day, bodies continued to be pulled from the rubble of two apartment blocks that took direct hits.

Drones, now equipped with jet engines, can be heard, but not seen, whining above, in an eerie game of cat and mouse with the city’s air defence systems.