Kyiv air raid alerts at record high as Russia launches round-the-clock strikes

Kyiv air raid alerts at record high as Russia launches round-the-clock strikes

Kyiv is experiencing more daily air raid alerts than at any point since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, according to BBC Verify analysis of government figures.

Where most air attacks once came at night, Russia’s new tactic of hitting Ukraine’s capital during the day is causing major disruption for schools and businesses.

The nonstop attacks have sent people to shelter as many as 13 times a day, with air raid alerts lasting anywhere from a few minutes to nearly four and a half hours.

People in Kyiv are finding it difficult to adjust to this new reality, on top of the stress and anxiety already present. The alerts force pupils out of classrooms and workers out of offices, while commuters struggle to get home as overland trains stop.

This has led the government to prepare a new two-tier warning system that would let people keep working, travelling and studying depending on the level of danger.

There was a short lull in attacks on Kyiv over the weekend while US envoys were in the city for talks aimed at ending the war.

But analysis of figures from the state-owned app Kyiv digital shows that since the round-the-clock Russian attacks began at the end of August, air raid sirens have sounded across Kyiv’s skies an average of 10 times a day.

In the seven days from Thursday 27 August, Kyiv faced 76 air raid alerts. The highest comparable figure in 2022 was the week beginning 27 February, when there were around 66 alerts.

Exact comparisons are not possible because data collected in the first few days of the invasion was sometimes incomplete. Even so, the trend in the numbers is clear.

From the BBC’s office, we hear the near constant rumble of air defences and drone explosions.

The increased Russian strikes are worsened by a second development: the use of newer and faster attack drones powered by jet engines. Some of these fly at almost 370 mph (595 km/h), three times faster than the older propeller-driven Shahed drones, and are harder to shoot down. Ukraine’s air force says Russia launched 2,800 fast drones in August, almost twice as many as in July.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has held an emergency meeting with ministers and commanders to figure out how to produce new high-speed missiles capable of intercepting the faster Russian drones.

“You can all see that the Russians have changed the tactics of their strikes against Ukraine and, since August, have been terrorising our people, our cities and our villages far more intensely,” the president said.

Diplomats say the danger is that Russia will produce its fast attack drones more quickly than Ukraine can develop a new generation of interceptors. Some military sources say this threat could become even greater than Russia’s ballistic missiles, which have largely overcome Ukraine’s depleted Patriot defences.

Ukraine uses warplanes, anti-aircraft guns and shoulder-launched missiles to try to bring down the jet-powered drones.

But Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, said only about 60 percent of the drones were being shot down and that new interceptors were needed to deal with the threat.

“The task now is to make them faster and equip them with specialised guidance systems so that they can shoot down jet-powered UAVs, the jet-powered Shaheds,” he said.

“The key issue really is having guidance systems, because that is one of the crucial elements. It is not enough for the interceptor simply to fly fast — it has to hit the target. That is very important.”

Analysts say Russia’s goal is not only to weaken Kyiv’s morale but also to damage Ukraine’s economy by targeting businesses and warehouses.

The alerts are also disrupting the start of the new academic year and forcing schoolchildren to leave their classrooms throughout the day.

When another air raid began, some students at the Drahomanov Ukrainian State University in central Kyiv went underground; others remained chatting on the street, such is the normality of these alerts.

Diana, a student teacher, said she did not sleep well at night and that her daytime schedule was disrupted. “Sometimes it is hard because most of the day I need to go to safe places, like the metro or somewhere underground,” she said. “It’s a terrible time, but thank God we are alive. We go day by day.”

Ihor, who is studying to become a chemistry teacher, said he had grown used to the alerts after many years of war, but life was still difficult. “We are annoyed by the sirens because they are constant,” he said. “It destroys the quality of our education… We cannot study normally.”

After a drone attack in a residential area of central Kyiv, students from a nearby school were evacuated over fears of explosions or a secondary, so-called “double-tap” attack.

Sophia, 17, said it was very sad, but this was what life was like now. “It’s a little bit scary to live here in Kyiv,” she said. “It’s very difficult.” The interview was then interrupted by another siren. “We need to go,” she said. “It is very dangerous for you to stand in the streets. Maybe we can have a second detonation.”

The constant air raids are a major problem for businesses, many of which have to close every time a siren sounds. We saw crowds of shop workers from Kyiv’s biggest department store lingering in the streets during an alert, forced to leave their workplace but not frightened enough to seek shelter.

Public transport is also being disrupted. Some metro trains have to stop during an alert because they travel overground across the Dnipro river that divides the city. This creates chaos for commuters, who are forced onto replacement buses.

To reduce this disruption, the government has agreed to a new air-raid warning system with two threat levels. A yellow warning will indicate a drone attack with less danger and fewer restrictions on work and travel. A red warning will indicate a more dangerous missile attack with stricter limits on activity.

As always, Ukraine is adapting to yet another new threat. But there is concern that Russia’s constant attacks now may leave the country and its capital less prepared for what many expect to be a difficult winter, as Russia shifts its assault back to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.