Ukrainian woman reports horror of Russian attacks: "It seemed like the end of the world"

When a huge explosion shook the building where Olha Mudra lives, in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, in the early hours of Tuesday (2), it seemed like the end of the world.

Mudra, her hair covered in dust and her face stained with soot, recalled the moment the explosion occurred, in the third mass attack on the Ukrainian capital in as many weeks.

"There was smoke everywhere, you couldn't see anything," Mudra told Reuters, standing next to her 6-year-old daughter, Natalia. "We couldn't understand what was happening - some kind of apocalypse?"

Behind her, emergency workers and other residents watched damaged buildings, twisted wreckage and burned vehicles that became a familiar scene in an air war with Russia that appears to be intensifying.

Both sides claim to attack only military targets. But civilians also end up caught up in the horror, with at least 18 people killed and more than 100 injured in the latest Russian attacks.

At least 12 deaths occurred in the city of Dnipro, in the southeast of the country.

Outside a destroyed building there, a small group of family and friends watched in shock as rescuers pulled at least three bodies from the rubble. A man among them burst into tears.

In Kiev, it was unclear whether Mudra's apartment was hit by a drone, a missile or debris from a projectile shot down by Ukrainian air defenses. Whatever the cause, confusion ensued.

"We were calling other people because we couldn't see anything," she said. "People used flashlights because it was dark. We didn't know where we were."

Crowded subways; growing exhaustion
Kiev and other Ukrainian cities woke up on Tuesday to the sound of air raid alarms and explosions from air defenses, as well as drones and missiles lighting up the night sky as they struck their targets.

Thousands of the capital's residents rushed to metro stations, where they spread mattresses and set up tents along crowded platforms to take shelter from the danger underground.

Anna Krzhypenska, a 21-year-old student, summed up well the feeling of exhaustion from a conflict that is now in its fifth year.

"It's difficult, both mentally and physically, because you would like to wake up peacefully in the morning, have a cup of coffee, but instead you have to go down (to the subway)."

In the hours following the attack, firefighters fought fires in several locations.

The bombing comes amid an escalation in rhetoric between Russia and Ukraine that leaves little hope of a quick end to Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, hoping to overthrow the pro-Western government in Kiev. Since then, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians have been killed, even though the front lines have barely moved.

Source: CNN