Kiev resident Diana Bobrovska was so worried about a new Russian attack on her neighborhood after a devastating strike on Monday that she spent a second night in a bomb shelter with her 2-year-old son, BTA reports, citing "Reuters".
"Two nights without sleep is extremely difficult", said the 31-year-old, standing near the rubble of an apartment building destroyed in the attack. "Plus the nerves - everything is very bad, to be honest".
Bobrovska and the other people at the site, where eight people were killed in their own homes, said they expected the strikes to have become more frequent as Russia has taken advantage of Ukraine's acute shortage of U.S.-made interceptors.
Ukraine's air defenses failed to shoot down any of the 23 ballistic missiles fired by Russia during a midnight attack on Kiev and its surroundings that killed 25 people.
Defense Ministry adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said on local television that Ukraine had officially exhausted its stock of Patriot missiles, which are needed to shoot down ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly asked his allies to provide more of the missiles, an issue he raised again this week at a NATO summit in Turkey.
In July, Ukraine's air defenses successfully shot down only 4 of the 49 ballistic missiles fired by Russia. missiles, according to Ukraine's air force.
Russia has improved its air warfare capabilities with Ukraine in recent months, while Russian ground forces have become increasingly insecure on the battlefield and have suffered losses in Ukrainian attacks on military bases and oil facilities.
„It's going to get worse“
Forty-seven-year-old Roman Starostishin, who lives just a stone's throw from the apartment building in Kiev that was destroyed in Monday's Russian attack, remembers waking up to a sound that sounded like „hammering“ as a series of explosions shook his home.
He says he may consider moving his family out of the city if the attacks become more frequent, although he can't work from home.
„It's going to get worse before it gets better better“ said Starostishin, a doctor by profession. “I think it's darkest just before sunrise and maybe the darkest time is still being counted“.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would continue with his war despite the growing difficulties for Russia. Moscow is demanding that Kiev hand over control of the rest of the eastern Donetsk region, which it has failed to capture after more than four years of fighting.
US President Donald Trump, who has held talks with both Zelensky and Putin, said on Tuesday in Ankara that he believed the war could be “resolved, hopefully soon“.
Anastasia Rybak, 32, who is on maternity leave and whose husband is at the front, was firm in her statement about what she called “Russian roulette“ attacks.
“You can go abroad, but that's not an option for me“, she said, adding: “Our country is our country“.