Ukraine's Capital Faces Sleepless Nights Amid Russian Attacks
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.
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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Ya Libnan
6 hours ago
- Ya Libnan
Ukrainian drones target St Petersburg as Putin attends scaled-down Navy Day
A man wearing a sailors' cap and striped vest takes a selfie photo in front of a warship during celebrations of Russia's Navy Day in Kronstadt outside Saint Petersburg, Russia, July 27, 2025. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov MOSCOW – Ukrainian drones targeted St. Petersburg on Sunday, Russian authorities said, forcing the airport to close for five hours as Vladimir Putin marked Russia's Navy Day in the city, despite the earlier cancellation of its naval parade due to security concerns. St. Petersburg usually holds a large-scale, televised navy parade on Navy Day, which features a flotilla of warships and military vessels sailing down the Neva River and is attended by Putin. Last year, Russia suspected a Ukrainian plan to attack the city's parade, according to state television. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Sunday that this year's parade had been cancelled for security reasons, following first reports of its cancellation in early July. Putin arrived at the city's historic naval headquarters on Sunday by patrol speed boat, from where he followed drills involving more than 150 vessels and 15,000 military personnel in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and Baltic and Caspian Seas. 'Today we are marking this holiday in a working setting, we are inspecting the combat readiness of the fleet,' Putin said in a video address. The Russian Defence Ministry said air defence units downed a total of 291 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones on Sunday, below a record 524 drones downed in attacks on May 7, ahead of Russia's Victory Day parade on May 9. Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region surrounding St. Petersburg, said that over ten drones were downed over the area, and falling debris injured a woman. At 0840 GMT on Sunday Drozdenko said that the attack was repelled. St. Petersburg's Pulkovo airport was closed during the attack, with 57 flights delayed and 22 diverted to other airports, according to a statement. Pulkovo resumed operations later on Sunday. Russian blogger Alexander Yunashev, part of an official group of reporters travelling with Peskov, said Peskov had told him their flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg had been delayed by the drone attack for 2 hours on Sunday. Reuters
Ya Libnan
6 hours ago
- Ya Libnan
Trump announces EU trade deal with 15% tariffs
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, after the announcement of a trade deal between the U.S. and EU, in Turnberry, Scotland, on July 27, 2025. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. reached a trade deal with the European Union , following pivotal discussions with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen days before the Aug. 1 tariff deadline. Trump said that the deal imposes a 15% tariff on most European goods to the U.S., which is lower than the 30% rate he had previously threatened against the United States' largest trading partner. Trump also said that the 27-member bloc has agreed to purchase $750 billion worth of U.S. energy and invest an additional $600 billion worth of investments into the U.S. above current levels. He said that the bloc would also be 'purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of military equipment,' but did not provide a specific dollar amount. 'It's a very powerful deal, it's a very big deal, it's the biggest of all the deals, Trump said alongside von der Leyen. 'It's a good deal, it's a huge deal, with tough negotiations,' von der Leyen said after the meeting. While questions remain about the specific details and timeline of the EU investments, the agreement marks a pivotal moment for Trump, following weeks of uncertainty surrounding the U.S.-EU trade talks. Trump during a press conference before his meeting with the European leader said that there was a 50-50 chance they would reach a framework of a deal. Brussels had been preparing for a no-deal scenario if the trade talks devolved ahead of Aug. 1. Lawmakers had approved a major package of counter-tariffs, which would have targeted a range of U.S. goods. The bloc also considered deploying the EU's ' Anti-Coercion Instrument ,' a move seen as the trading bloc's 'trade bazooka.' Ireland's Prime Minister said that the agreement 'brings clarity and predictability to the trading relationship between the EU and the US.' 'It does mean that there will now be higher tariffs than there have been and this will have an impact on trade between the EU and the US, making it more expensive and more challenging,' the Department of the Taoiseach said in a statement . Still, the agreement 'creates a new era of stability,' the statement continued. CNBC
Ya Libnan
14 hours ago
- Ya Libnan
Don't be fooled by Al-Sharaa's business suit, he is still a jihadist
File: Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt shakes hands with Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 22, 2024. Despite his hollow promises, Al-Sharaa has failed miserably in protecting Syria's vulnerable minorities and managed to drive a wedge between the Druze in Syria and in Lebanon. The last thing the Syrians want to see is another dictator like Bashar al-Assad REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi The recent massacre targeting the Syrian Druze community in Sweida , a small religious minority group resulted in the killing of over 600 members including 140 women and children according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's forces and allied militias have carried out the massacres in Sweida province This eruption of violence was an eerie reminder of a series of violence that has been launched against the Syrian religious communities and ethnic minorities, since the current regime has come to power. The Syrian National Army (SNA) which is also part of a coalition led by President Ahmad Al-Shaara's group Hayat Taheer Al-Sham (HTS) attacked Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in North-East Syria in December 2024. In particular, fierce fighting along the Tishreen Dam became the focal point. In March, indiscriminate killings of Alawites were carried out in the Syrian coastal areas especially in the city of Banias. While exact figures remain difficult to verify, more than 1,300 individuals, most of them Alawites, lost their lives. In some cases, entire families were summarily executed. These atrocities were solely directed against the Alawite minority and instigated by militias affiliated with the new regime, ostensibly as part of a response to attacks in Latakia and Tartous from armed groups affiliated with the deposed Assad regime. In the name of fighting former President Bashar Al-Assad loyalist collective punishment was given to the Alawite community. In June this year a church in the Syrian capital of Damascus was rocked by a suicide explosion, in this deadly attack 25 people were killed. The Syrian authorities blamed the attack on the Islamic State (ISIS) group. However, a lesser- known Sunni extremist group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, claimed responsibility for this attack. Many analysts believe this little-known group has deep links with HTS as their relations with HTS stretch back to before the Bashar Al-Assad If we look at the pattern of all these past attacks, it clearly indicates that they were carried out on the instructions or at least with tacit approval of the current Syrian regime. The objective of these attacks was to subdue the minorities through terror, so they don't demand their full political rights. The current Syrian regime got emboldened by the recent lifting of western sanctions and informal recognition it got from Arab states and the United States. In May 2025 the US president met Ahmad Al-Shaara in the Saudi capital Riyadh and expressed admiration for him. He went further and described Al-Shaara as a strongman and declared him a 'Tough guy with a very strong past.' The US president should have ordered a thorough research to dug more into the past of Al-Shaara as his past is one marked by links to al-Qaeda, and ISIS Al Sharaa even managed to fool Lebanon Druze leader Walid Jumblatt , who was the first Lebanese official to visit Damascus and meet with Al- Sharaa despite the objection of the Druze leadership in Syria. Jumblatt and his team were completely fooled by Al Sharaa as recent events in Syria indicate . Yesterday he went as far as attacking Syrian Druze leader Sheikh Hikmet Al Hijri, who is the most popular Druze spiritual leader in Syria and accused the Druze of Sweida of massacring the Bedouin tribes, an unfounded claim that no one else ever made. Only Federalism Can Save Syria Despite his hollow promises, Ahmed al-Sharaa has failed miserably in protecting Syria's vulnerable minorities. His brief rule has not ushered in a new era of inclusion or reconciliation, but one of betrayal and brutality. Many minorities across Syria—from Christians to Alawites, Druze to Kurds—no longer see Sharaa as a protector but as a former ISIS affiliate in a business suit. Since unilaterally appointing himself as Syria's interim president, thousands from these communities have been killed. Nowhere is his failure more glaring than in Sweida, where government forces dispatched to quell violence between Sunni Bedouins and the Druze ended up siding with the Bedouins. Instead of restoring order, they executed Druze civilians at gunpoint, looted homes, and set them ablaze. These actions confirm what many Syrians have long feared: Sharaa has no intention to govern for all Syrians—only to consolidate power under the guise of security. In this climate of deep mistrust and sectarian tension, the idea of a strong, centralized government led by one faction is no longer tenable. Syria needs a new path forward—one that gives every group a stake in the country's future while ensuring local governance, autonomy, and protection. That path is federalism. Federalism is a system of government in which power is divided between a central authority and smaller political units—such as states, provinces, or cantons. Each unit maintains a degree of autonomy to govern its own affairs, particularly in areas like education, policing, and culture, while still being part of a unified national framework. It is a model that has proven successful in multi-ethnic and multi-religious countries. Perhaps the best example is Switzerland . Despite its linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity, Switzerland has remained peaceful, democratic, and united—not in spite of its differences, but because it embraced them. The Swiss Confederation consists of 26 cantons, each with its own constitution, government, and even police force. Yet all are bound together under a federal government that handles foreign policy, national defense, and major economic policies. It is a country where French, German, Italian, and Romansh speakers coexist harmoniously—not because they were forced to live under a single ruler, but because they were empowered to manage their own affairs within a shared federal system.
