Sleepless in Kyiv: how Ukraine's capital copes with Russia's nighttime attacks
KYIV - Several nights a week, 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 nighttime 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 frontline 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 Two.
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 Slavytska taking refuge in the cavernous Soviet-era ticket halls and drafty platforms of Kyiv's 46 underground stations soared after large-scale bombardments slammed the city five times in June.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore S'pore sees no baby boom in Year of the Dragon despite slight rise in births in 2024
Singapore A deadly cocktail: Easy access, lax attitudes driving Kpod scourge in S'pore
Singapore 'I thought it was an April Fool's joke': Teen addicted to Kpods on news that friend died
Asia Japan outdoor museum of vending machines aims to draw global fans
Life SG60 F&B icons: Celebrate these 14 home-grown F&B brands that have stood the test of time
Asia Indonesian authorities partially close Mount Rinjani after two accidents involving foreign climbers
Singapore 314 suicides reported in Singapore in 2024, remains leading cause of youth deaths
Life CEO of tech firm placed on leave after viral Coldplay 'kiss cam' clip prompts internal probe
Previously, the loud air raid alert on her phone sent Emil into bouts of shaking and he would cry "Corridor, corridor, mum. I'm scared. Corridor, mum," Slavytska said. Now, accustomed to the attacks, he says more calmly "Mum, we should go".
"We used to come here less often, about once a month," Slavytska said, sheltering in Akademmistechko station in western Kyiv. "That was six months ago. Now we come two or three times a week." She spent the night curled up on her pink mat with Emil by a column lining the subway tracks.
The subway system recorded 165,000 visits during June nights, more than double the 65,000 visits in May and nearly five times the number in June last year, its press service told Reuters.
More people were heading to the shelter because of "the scale and lethality" of attacks, the head of Kyiv's military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, told Reuters. He said strikes killed 78 Kyiv residents and injured more than 400 in the first half of the year.
U.S. President Donald Trump cited Russia's strikes on Ukrainian cities when announcing his decision on Monday to offer Kyiv more weapons, including Patriot missiles to boost its air defences.
"It's incredible that (people) stay, knowing that a missile could be hitting your apartment," Trump said.
EXHAUSTION AND TERROR
In April, a strike destroyed a residential building a couple of kilometres from Slavytska's apartment block.
"It was so, so loud. Even my son woke up and I held him in my arms in the corridor," she said. "It was really scary."
With the threat of losing her home suddenly more tangible, she now takes her identity documents with her underground.
After seeing how stressed Emil became after the air alerts, Slavytska sought help from a paediatrician, who recommended she turn off her phone's loud notifications and prescribed a calming medication. Slavytska tells Emil the loud sound during attacks is thunder.
Scientists and psychologists say that the lack of sleep is taking its toll on a population worn down by more than three years of war.
Kateryna Holtsberh, a family psychologist who practices in Kyiv, said sleep deprivation caused by the attacks was causing mood swings, extreme stress and apathy, leading to declined cognitive functions in both kids and adults.
"Many people say that if you sleep poorly, your life will turn into hell and your health will suffer," said Kateryna Storozhuk, another Kyiv region resident. "I didn't understand this until it happened to me."
Anton Kurapov, post-doctoral scholar at the University of Salzburg's Laboratory for Sleep, Cognition and Consciousness Research, said it was hard to convey to outsiders what it felt like to be under attack.
"Imagine a situation where you go out into the street and a person is shot in front of you ... and what fear you experience, your heart sinks," he said. "People experience this every day, this feeling."
Kurapov warned that the impact of such stress could result in lifetime consequences, including chronic illnesses.
A study he led that was published in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology in August 2024 showed that 88% of Ukrainians surveyed reported bad or very bad sleep quality.
Lack of sleep can significantly impact economic performance and soldiers' ability to fight, said Wendy Troxel, senior behavioural scientist at RAND Corporation, a U.S. think-tank.
RAND research in 2016 which Troxel co-authored showed that lack of sleep among the U.S. working population was costing the economy up to $411 billion a year.
As she tries to squeeze out more hours of sleep in the subway, Slavytska is looking into buying a mattress to bring underground that would be more comfortable than her mat. Danish retailer JYSK says the air strikes prompted a 25% jump in sales of inflatable mattresses, camp beds and sleep mats in Kyiv in three weeks of June.
Others are taking more extreme measures. Small business owner Storozhuk, who had no shelter within three km of her home, invested over $2,000 earlier this year in a Ukrainian-made "Capsule of Life" reinforced steel box, capable of withstanding falling concrete slabs.
She climbs in nightly, with her Chihuahua, Zozulia.
"I developed a lot of anxiety and fear," Storozhuk said. "I realized that in order to be able to sleep peacefully in Ukraine, I needed some kind of safe shelter." REUTERS

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
25 minutes ago
- Business Times
Oil prices rally on US pressure on Russia, trade deal optimism
[NEW YORK] Oil prices gained more than 3 per cent on Tuesday as President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine and on optimism that a trade war between the US and its major trading partners was abating. Brent crude futures settled US$2.47, or 3.53 per cent, higher at US$72.51 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate crude gained US$2.50, or 3.75 per cent, to settle at US$69.21. Both contracts settled at their highest since June 20. On Tuesday, Trump said he would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia '10 days from today' if Moscow did not make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine. 'We've amped it up. We have a hard deadline of 10 days,' said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group. 'And there's a suggestion that other countries are going to join us.' Also on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had told Chinese officials that, given US secondary tariff legislation on sanctioned Russian oil, China could face high tariffs if Beijing continued its Russian oil purchases. Bessent was speaking after two days of bilateral talks aimed at resolving longstanding economic disputes and stepping back from an escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Also supporting oil prices, the trade agreement between the US and the European Union, while imposing a 15 per cent import tariff on most EU goods, sidestepped a full-blown trade war between the two major allies that would have rippled across nearly a third of global trade and dimmed the outlook for fuel demand. 'There is definitely some optimism around the trade deals,' said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho. 'It's not perfect, especially for the Europeans, but it is better than it could have been by a long shot.' The agreement also calls for US$750 billion of EU purchases of US energy over the next three years, which analysts say the bloc has virtually no chance of meeting, while European companies are to invest US$600 billion in the US over Trump's term. Market participants also await the outcome of the US Federal Reserve policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady but could signal a dovish tilt due to signs of cooling inflation, said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at brokerage Phillip Nova. REUTERS

Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Acting NASA administrator to hold talks with Russian counterpart on space issues
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks to the media outside the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo WASHINGTON - The interim head of NASA, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, said on Tuesday he is looking to find common ground with Russia on space issues when he meets with his Russian counterpart later this week. Russian news agencies reported earlier this week that Duffy is set to hold talks with the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, for the first in-person meeting at the agencies' heads' level since 2018. "We have wild disagreement with the Russians on Ukraine," Duffy told reporters after an event on Capitol Hill, while noting that the United States has a partnership with Russia on the International Space Station. "We're going to continue to build alliances and partnerships and friendships as humanity continues to advance in space exploration." President Donald Trump named Duffy as NASA's interim head earlier this month. Duffy has emphasized that this is a temporary assignment. "We find points of agreement, points of partnership, which is what we have with the International Space Station and the Russians," Duffy said. "Through hard times, we don't throw those relationships away." Duffy is headed to Cape Canaveral, Florida on Wednesday for meetings and to attend the scheduled launch of the SpaceX Crew-11 flight this week. The space program is one of the few international projects on which the United States and Russia still cooperate closely. Relations in other areas between the two countries have broken down since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Business No clarity yet on baseline or pharmaceutical tariffs with US: DPM Gan Singapore Grace Fu apologises for Tanjong Katong sinkhole, says road may stay closed for a few more days Singapore Terrorism threat in Singapore remains high, driven by events like Israeli-Palestinian conflict: ISD Singapore Liquidators score victory to recoup over $900 million from alleged scammer Ng Yu Zhi's associates Singapore Man on trial for raping woman who hired him to repair lights in her flat Sport IOC president Kirsty Coventry a 'huge supporter' of Singapore Singapore Child and firefighter among 7 taken to hospital after fire breaks out in Toa Payoh flat Singapore S'pore can and must meaningfully apply tech like AI in a way that creates jobs for locals: PM Wong "We plan to discuss the continuation of the cross-flight program, the extension of the International Space Station's operational life, and the work of the Russia-U.S. joint task force on the future safe deorbiting and controlled ocean disposal of the ISS," TASS cited Bakanov as saying in the Roscosmos statement. The last meeting between the heads of Roscosmos and NASA took place in October 2018, when Dmitry Rogozin, then director general of Roscosmos, met NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in person also at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. REUTERS

Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Russian strike on Ukrainian training unit kills three servicemen, injures 18, military says
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian training unit on Tuesday killed three servicemen and injured 18, Ukraine's Ground Forces said. "Today, July 29, the enemy launched a missile strike on the territory of one of the training units of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," the Ground Forces said in a statement on Telegram. "Despite the security measures taken, unfortunately it was not possible to completely avoid losses among the personnel. As of 21:30, it is known that there are three dead and 18 wounded servicemen." The report gave no indication where the attack had taken place. But military bloggers suggested it had occurred near the country's northern border in Chernihiv region. A Russian attack on a training ground in central Ukraine in June killed 12 servicemen and wounded dozens. The incident prompted the commander of Ukraine's ground forces to tender his resignation and he was reassigned to another post. REUTERS