‘Some kind of apocalypse’: Kyiv resident recalls terror of Russian attack

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Resident Olha Mudra and her girl  Natalia, 6, look   astatine  their damaged flat  aft  a adjacent    gathering  got struck during overnight Russian rocket  and drone attacks, amid Russia's onslaught  connected  Ukraine, successful  Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday (June 2, 2026).

Resident Olha Mudra and her girl Natalia, 6, look astatine their damaged flat aft a adjacent gathering got struck during overnight Russian rocket and drone attacks, amid Russia's onslaught connected Ukraine, successful Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday (June 2, 2026). | Photo Credit: Reuters

When ‌a ample detonation shook Olha Mudra’s flat artifact successful Kyiv successful ​the aboriginal hours of Tuesday (June 1, 2026) it felt similar the extremity of ⁠the world. Ms. Mudra, her hairsbreadth covered successful particulate and look smeared with soot, recalled the infinitesimal erstwhile the blast occurred, successful the 3rd wide onslaught connected the Ukrainian superior successful arsenic galore ‌weeks.

“There was fume everywhere, you couldn’t spot anything,” Ms. Mudra told Reuters, lasting with her six-year-old girl Natalia. “We couldn’t recognize what was happening — immoderate benignant of ‌apocalypse?”

Behind her, exigency workers and chap residents surveyed damaged buildings, twisted debris and ‌burned-out ⁠vehicles that person go a acquainted show successful an aerial warfare ⁠with Russia that appears to beryllium intensifying.

Both sides accidental they lone onslaught subject targets. But civilians are besides caught up successful the horror, with astatine slightest 18 radical killed and much than 100 wounded successful ​the latest Russian strikes. At slightest 12 ‌of the deaths came successful the southeastern metropolis of Dnipro.

Outside a ruined flat gathering there, a tiny radical of household and friends looked connected successful daze arsenic rescue workers removed astatine slightest 3 bodies from the rubble. One antheral among ‌them burst into tears.

In Kyiv, it was not wide if Ms. Mudra’s location ​was deed by a drone oregon a missile, oregon by debris from a projectile downed by Ukrainian aerial defences. Whatever the cause, disorder ⁠followed. “We were calling different people, arsenic we couldn’t spot anything,” she said. “People were utilizing flashlights, arsenic it was dark. We couldn’t recognize wherever we were.”

Kyiv ‌and different Ukrainian cities awoke connected Tuesday (June 1, 2026) to the wail of aerial raid alerts and roar of aerial defences and incoming drones and missiles that lit up the nighttime entity connected impact.

Thousands of residents of the superior hurried to metro stations wherever they laic retired mattresses and acceptable up tents on packed platforms to structure from the information heavy underground. Anna Krzhypenska, a 21-year-old student, summed up the consciousness of ‌exhaustion from a struggle good into its 5th year.

“It’s difficult, some mentally and physically, due to the fact that ​you would similar to aftermath up peacefully successful the morning, person a cupful of coffee, but alternatively you person to spell downstairs (to the metro).” In ⁠the hours aft the attack, occurrence fighters battled blazes astatine respective locations.

The bombardment comes ⁠amid an escalation successful rhetoric betwixt Russia and Ukraine that leaves small anticipation of a swift extremity to Europe’s deadliest struggle since World War Two.

Russia ‌launched its full-scale penetration successful February 2022, hoping to topple the pro-Western authorities successful Kyiv. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians person been killed ​since, though the beforehand lines are hardly budging.

Published - June 02, 2026 09:04 p.m. IST

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