For much of the war, many Kyiv residents relied on what they called the “two-wall rule”—keeping two walls between themselves and the outside world during shelling. But Russia’s new tactics have made that approach feel dangerously inadequate.
In the first 10 days of July alone, Russian forces launched dozens of ballistic missiles in three major attacks that killed nearly 60 civilians, according to official figures. Similar large-scale strikes followed in August and September.
The change became personal for Daria, a 27-year-old defence sector worker, during a May night attack. She and her boyfriend were watching a boxing match in the corridor of their ninth-floor apartment when explosions rattled the building, repeatedly slamming their windows open and shut. When the fight ended, she said, “there was no longer anything to distract me. That’s when I realised I was really scared.”
At first Daria considered using a nearby bomb shelter. But in June, after a young mother was killed while running to a shelter in Kyiv, she decided to leave the city. She moved to her family’s country house in Romankiv, about 30 km from Kyiv, and now spends four hours each day commuting to and from her job.
Daria’s story reflects a broader exhaustion gripping the capital. The BBC’s analysis indicates that air raid warnings now sound more frequently than at any previous stage of the full-scale war, compressing the time residents have to find cover and amplifying the psychological strain.