Fierce Russian drone attack shatters Kyiv’s calm

KYIV – Russia launched a fierce swarm of explosive drones at Kyiv and other targets early Saturday, interrupting a weekslong lull in the Ukrainian capital and adding to its darkening mood.

Ukraine’s military said air defenses destroyed 74 of 75 Iranian-made Shahed drones during a six-hour attack that included dozens of the weapons aimed at Kyiv, in what the city’s mayor said was the largest drone attack since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

All of the pilotless craft headed for Kyiv were intercepted and destroyed, although falling debris struck a kindergarten, ignited a few fires and injured five people, including an 11-year-old child, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on Telegram.

The noisiest day in weeks, if not months, came as a reminder of more hard days ahead – with many Ukrainians bracing for Russia to attack civilian infrastructure throughout the winter. But in Kyiv, that fear has percolated beneath an eerie calm in recent weeks.

“In Kyiv, to be honest, we don’t feel the war that much anymore,” Mykola Yarmoluk, 68, a retired member of Ukraine’s diplomatic service, said just days before Saturday’s pre-dawn drone attack.

Yarmoluk said the many scorched and rusted wrecks of Russian tanks on display in the city had receded into the background, as had memories of nightly air-raid sirens and Russian airstrikes.

Sandbags are still piled as defenses near key government buildings, and Kyiv’s two airports remain shattered. High-level visitors, including U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was in town last weekend, still must arrive by ground from Poland.

But for weeks, there had been general, if uneasy, quiet in the capital, even as intense fighting continued on the eastern and southern fronts.

In the overnight strikes, Russia sent waves of drones from different directions and on a mix of flight paths in a bid to confuse Ukraine’s air defenses, according to Ukrainian media outlets.

The Ukrainian air force said on its Telegram channel that 15 of 20 drones had been shot down in airspace in the Kyiv, Poltava and Cherkasy regions. A Russian missile was launched at Kyiv on Nov. 11 but was intercepted, thwarting what was the first such attack after a 52-day lull.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that Saturday’s large drone assault was timed to coincide with the day on which Ukrainians commemorate the Holodomor, the famine engineered by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in the early 1930s that killed millions of Ukrainians.

“We’ve got one option: keep living and keep fighting back,” said Yarmoluk, the retired diplomat. He said he and many other Ukrainians remain stubbornly optimistic.

Despite the relative quiet, the mood in Kyiv had been darkening for weeks, as senior military officials acknowledged that Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive had largely stalled and international attention shifted to the war in the Gaza Strip.

Officials in Kyiv also have watched warily as some Republicans in Congress blocked additional aid for Ukraine proposed by President Biden, and as Russian President Vladimir Putin lined up support for his war effort from Iran and North Korea.

At home, the scrappy spirit of determination and unity that had been holding the country together against a superior foe has given way to a realization that the war is at a deadlock, and a worry among Ukrainians that its terrible math favors Russia, the far larger and better-armed aggressor.

The mood has changed, said Liudmyla Radchenko, 61, a nanny pushing an infant in a stroller around a city park during a cold snap. “We were so patriotic, so believing that we’re going to win soon,” she said. “But right now we all realize the enemy is very strong.”

She said she hopes uncertainty about the future of U.S. support would speed Ukraine’s efforts to build its own arsenal.

Ukrainian spirits received a bit of a lift this week when its soccer team battled Italy, the reigning European champs, to a hard-fought draw in the 2024 European championship qualifiers.

“It’s definitely a more symbolic match now,” said Oleksandr Postuvalov, 25, who crowded around a table with three friends to watch the game at a sports bar.

Postuvalov said many Ukrainians’ shifting view of the conflict have been reshaped by a recent interview Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the nation’s top officer, gave to the Economist expressing his belief that the war had reached a World War I-like stalemate.

“It’s like a cold shower for us,” Postuvalov said. “Ukrainian media were too rah rah.”

Earlier that day, a small funeral party had marched through the gates of Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Cathedral to pay their respects to a British citizen who died while serving as a medic in Ukraine. A floral arrangement in the shape of the Union Jack leaned against the churchyard’s outer wall, which is covered with the pictures of Ukrainian military personnel who have been killed since 2014, when armed conflict with Russia and Russian-backed separatists began.

Tamara Pylypenko, 61, who works in a nearby office, visited the “Memory Wall” to pay her respects to two of her son’s friends who volunteered for the military after war began in 2014. Her son is fighting now in Vuledar with the 72nd Brigade.

“It’s my kind of mission to pay tribute from all of us to the slain soldiers,” Pylypenko said, adding that she also contributes to the cause by making “trench candles” – a homemade Sterno burner made from paraffin, cardboard and old tin cans – and she knits camo nets to cover tank pits and checkpoints.

While Ukrainians mourn the loss of tens of thousands of lives, grumbling has increased about an unknown number of draft dodgers and the feeling that while a large part of the country suffers the daily horrors of Russia’s onslaught, some others go about their affairs as they normally would.

“We need more soldiers,” said Iryna Vovchuk, 62, who sells fruit and vegetables at the Zhitnii Rynok, a Soviet-era open market in Kyiv. But she also voiced the common feeling that the best and most dedicated of Ukrainian young men have already joined the fight.

Tatiana Shapolova, 69, a retired bank employee who was picking up some meat from a favorite vendor to send to her refugee son and family in France, said she has heard talk among friends and seen news reports about faltering morale and growing numbers of draft dodgers, but she said the percentage of those shirking their duty is small. Most people – including a nephew who reached 18 and wants to enlist – know what’s at stake. “We’re fighting for the life we used to have. I don’t want to live in Putin’s dictatorship,” she said.

Iryna Afansieva, 50, a florist at Zhitnii Rynok, said Ukrainians understand that the United States and other Western allies have other national priorities, but she, too, was confident that Ukraine would prevail.

“We’re very, very grateful to American citizens and their government for what we already have received. It’s a huge help,” Afansieva, 50, said. “But if you’ve got some problems here in the States, we do understand it and we can wait for you to sort it out.”

In the end, Afansieva said, she trusted that Ukraine’s allies would understand the importance of standing up to Russia and come around with the necessary aid.