It was shortly after 10pm last Thursday when Viktoriia thought her luck had finally run out.
She heard the gentle humming noise every Ukrainian fears most and then… a deafening explosion.
Her chandelier crashed to the floor. Seconds later, another blast shook the walls of her fourth-floor apartment. Flowerpots flew off her shelves.
As she sprinted for cover, a third explosion shattered her windows, twisted the door frames and slammed the 53-year-old HR manager into the wall.
‘A little longer, just a few minutes, maybe even less – and that would have been it,’ said Viktoriia, who later found part of the Iranian-made Geran-2 kamikaze drone on the couch next to her front window.
She was still trembling from her brush with death when we arrived within an hour of the attack on civilians in Kharkiv. ‘Only now I’ve calmed down a little – I couldn’t even speak before,’ she said.
While she counts herself lucky, her home has been ripped apart. One floor up, her son and daughter-in-law’s apartment was totally destroyed. Thankfully, they made it to a shelter in time.
The attack on the Novobavarskyi district, involving suicide drones, killed a couple in their 30s and their 12-year-old daughter together with a 45-year-old neighbour. An 88-year-old man later died from his injuries.
It was shortly after 10pm last Thursday when Viktoriia thought her luck had finally run out
Anastasiia (pictured), 21, stood traumatised, cradling her dog Busia on the street, having narrowly escaped being hit by a blast which knocked her to the floor
Dozens more were hurt, with hundreds more left traumatised.
They included Olha, 53, whose son’s home was destroyed. He is a soldier who went missing while fighting the Russian invaders over two years ago. ‘I don’t have a son anymore and now I don’t have an apartment either,’ she said, breaking down in tears. ‘Everything is gone.’
Anastasiia, 21, stood traumatised, cradling her dog Busia on the street, having narrowly escaped being hit by a blast which knocked her to the floor.
Nearby, Oleksandr, 21, clutched a box containing his two cats after he had helped a frail neighbour who had been hurt by shattered glass reach medics.
Three years into the war, and with the focus on the conflict in the Middle East, little attention is being paid any more to what the Ukrainians are still suffering.
Today, president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia was increasing its aerial bombardment after it mounted a ‘massive’ overnight missile and drone attack, killing two people and wounding at least seven. Over the past week, Russia has launched more than 1,460 guided aerial bombs, nearly 670 attack drones and over 30 missiles, he said.
A ballistic missile attack on his hometown of Kryvyi Rih, which killed 18 people on Friday, hit the headlines. But what happened in Kharkiv barely registered outside the country. There has only been one day this year when Vladimir Putin has not launched attacks on civilians. His forces send in 100 or so kamikaze drones along with a handful of missiles.
For Ukrainians, this is the terrible game of Russian roulette which they must endure each night. Yet Putin’s favourite negotiator Kirill Dmitriev last week praised Donald Trump for his ‘de-escalation’ of the war during a visit to Washington.
The attack on the Novobavarskyi district (pictured), involving suicide drones, killed a couple in their 30s and their 12-year-old daughter together with a 45-year-old neighbour. An 88-year-old man later died from his injuries
The US President has yet to call out these strikes on civilians, nor heed Mr Zelensky’s calls to force Moscow to halt them as a precursor to peace. In cities like Kharkiv, most residents have stopped paying attention to the air raid sirens, which sound half a dozen times each day.
With Ukraine’s second city now home to 1.3million, including about half a million internally displaced people, they would rather take the chance that they will not be hit than spend their days cowering in shelters.
Some monitor social media channels which track the drones on their 30-minute journey towards a pre-determined target. But for many, they only know if the strike is coming when they hear that distinctive hum.
For Maryna, who lives five minutes’ drive from Viktoriia’s apartment, she too thought that day had come last Thursday.
Amid the explosions, she sprinted from her block – just as a kamikaze drone smashed into the building opposite. ‘It was a direct hit,’ said the 45-year-old mother.
‘Everything was completely in flames. It was terrifying. Ever since the war started, we have been through it all – planes, S-300s [missiles], everything.
‘But it was the scariest night. For the first time during all of this, I really want to leave.’
The drone which killed her neighbours has an accuracy of about 15 metres, roughly the distance between their homes.
‘It was just luck,’ she said of her survival. ‘I don’t know what angels saved us.’
Additional reporting by Olha Cherenkova
