After weeks of relative calm, Russia launched its largest-ever kamikaze drone attack against Kyiv at dawn on Saturday, November 25. Air defense counterfire, followed by explosions, could be heard echoing across the sky for six hours.

According to Air Force Commander Mykola Olechtchouk, the Ukrainian capital was "the main target" of an attack involving 75 explosive-laden Iranian Shahed-type drones. Launched in successive waves across the country, 66 of them flew over Kyiv and the surrounding region alone. Seventy-four were shot down, according to the army. One of its spokesmen, Yuriy Ignat, explained that these drones had been "improved upon": Coated in carbon fiber and black paint, they'd been rendered more difficult to detect. Five people, including an 11-year-old child, were injured by falling debris, while dozens of homes across four of the capital's districts were damaged.

In the Solomianskyi district, soon after the alert was lifted, volunteers and neighbors set about cleaning up and repairing the facade of an elementary school, as well as several other buildings that were damaged. Residents used power saws to cut boards to seal broken window openings. "We need to fix a window for an elderly lady who lives up there on her own," said a neighbor, calling out to the small group.

Clad in a pink bathrobe, Valentyna Baoulenko chatted with neighbors in front of her driveway, not far from the crater formed by a falling drone. She and her husband had taken refuge in the hallway of their apartment after the initial explosions were heard in the distance. But after a while, feeling frozen from the cold, the couple returned to their bedroom. "That's where it exploded and the window fell on top of us," the elderly woman said with a gasp.

A bit further on, backhoe loaders were clearing the area around a kindergarten, part of which had been gutted and the roof blown off, while city employees were sweeping up the debris. Luckily, no children had been at the school at that early hour and it was empty. Gregory Podolskiy, 29, surveyed the damage. It was the first time that he'd heard drones flying overhead so distinctly. "It was really noisy compared to usual," said the young man, who had taken refuge with his partner in their apartment hallway, "away from the windows."

It had been a long time since the couple, like many of the capital's residents, had gone into the air-raid shelters during an alert. "It's impossible to live like that," he said, referring to a time in May when the city endured almost daily strikes from Russian drones and missiles. "We went to the shelters for 25 nights but, after getting up all the time and not being able to sleep for so long, you risk dying of fatigue."

You have 45% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.