Ordinary day, extraordinary times: Kyiv under Russian attack

Anastasiia Zhmutska, 44, stands in a bus on her way home after work in Kyiv. | AFP-JIJi

Oct 21, 2026

Kyiv – The air alert ends at 8:15 a.m. with an explosion in the distance, allowing Anastasiia Zhmutska to finally take her 14-year-old son Orest to school in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

Anastasiia, 44, is a busy mother with three children, a job at a hospital and little time for herself. Since the end of summer, Russia has “added a few extra tasks,“ she said with a mischievous glint that barely conceals her fatigue.

Air raid alerts and explosions shatter her nights and set the rhythm of her days, as Russia steps up drone attacks that have killed more than 190 people in Kyiv since January.

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