By ISAAC HOLT

For over two and a half years, Ukraine has endured the largest and most destructive war on European soil since World War II. For the people of Ukraine, their immediate separation from the frontlines has not spared them from the devastation inflicted by Russia. Every single day Ukraine’s cities feel the effects of an unrelenting, sustained bombing campaign designed to instill fear and terror. 

As an international volunteer and journalist, I spent the past two months in Ukraine traveling from city to city, experiencing firsthand and documenting the realities of Russia’s campaign against the civilian population of Ukraine. From Lviv to Kharkiv, Odesa to Kyiv, the stories of Ukraine’s defenders are unique, yet they share a collective determination to ensure that war does not dictate their nation’s fate. 

Every single week, Russian forces launch more than 350 drones, 80 cruise missiles, and dozens of glide bombs directly at Ukrainian cities. Since February 2022, over 30,000 ‘long-range munitions’ have struck Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian General Staff. Additionally, on the frontlines, Russian forces fire anywhere from 15,000 to 28,000 artillery shells at Ukrainian forces every day. To put this number into perspective, during one of the most intense periods of the War in Afghanistan in mid-2017 the US military fired around 500 artillery shells per day at Taliban and militant forces.

No matter where a city is located in Ukraine, the threat of air attacks exists every second of the day. On just my third day in the city of Lviv, a city more than 450 miles from the frontlines, the main train station was struck by 4 hypersonic cruise missiles, killing 7 people and injuring more than 40. While the attack momentarily halted my sense of routine, what shocked me most was not the sound of the jets or the force of the blast, but the eerie normalcy that followed. Even though this was the largest air attack on Lviv since October of 2022, the morning after the attack (which occurred at around 5:00 a.m.), the city was alive and bustling as though it was a normal Tuesday. Kids went to school, buses and metros ran as normal, and save for the random EMS sirens one would have no basis for assuming a massive air attack had rocked the city just hours prior. 

It is important to note that this attack occurred at night and that the only time air raid sirens would be activated in Lviv while I was there was when it was dark out. This is in line with the trends of Russia’s air campaign over the past few months. As it has become more clear to the Russian leadership that Ukraine will not cede an inch of its territory without putting up staunch resistance, Russia has shifted from targeting Ukraine’s military to targeting its people. 

As I moved eastward to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital and largest city, I found the pattern of nighttime bombings to be strikingly consistent. Kyiv, being Ukraine’s wartime capital, is by far the most heavily defended city in Ukraine. Conversely, it is also by far the most heavily targeted city in 

Ukraine, due to its hosting the headquarters of the government and military. I spent the vast majority of my time in Ukraine inside the wartime capital. Over roughly 6 weeks in Kyiv, I recorded no less than 213 air raid sirens and 19 explosion events (rapid, successive blasts I recorded as a single ‘explosion event’) occurring at night. To account for the total number of air raid sirens at night and during the day would be impossible, as air raid sirens are near constant. Despite this, the number of ~5 air raid sirens per day (during dark hours) conveys the intent of Russia’s bombing strategy. 

According to the civil defense database of the Ukrainian Government, during the months of August and October of 2024, more than 85% of air raid sirens occurred between the hours of 10 PM and 4 AM. According to the same source, more than 95% of reported explosions in or near the city occurred during “night conditions”. 

The extremes of the Russian air campaign are present in cities further east than Kyiv. Of the ones I visited, namely Kharkiv, it was clear that the disparity in air defenses between Kyiv and the eastern regions of Ukraine makes the danger level to everyday civilians drastically higher. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city and one located about 20 miles from the border with Russia has been heavily bombed by Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion with devastating effects. Due to Kharkiv’s proximity to the frontlines, Russian forces have a much wider variety of weaponry available to target the city. In addition to traditional standoff weapons

like cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, which are the only weapons capable of hitting cities like Kyiv and Lviv, glide bombs and cluster bombs are just some of a wide variety of weapons Russia hits Kharkiv with daily. In just 4 days in the city, statistics for air raid sirens are such that it would be quicker to list the number of times there wasn’t an air raid siren. Explosions from both air and artillery strikes rang out on the outskirts of the city in successive order every three to four hours, nonstop. Walking around the city for just a few hours portrays a clear image of the physical destruction caused by intense, prolonged bombings, as almost every major street is littered with buildings reduced to rubble. 

Holistically, Russia’s air campaign has not recently turned into one that is targeting civilians. Since the very first day of the invasion, Russia made clear its lack of regard for differentiating Ukraine’s military and civilian infrastructure. However, their overall goals and strategies have changed, beginning with their intentions of simply eliminating immediate military threats and shifting over time to deliberate nighttime terror bombing. 

Russia’s current air campaign tactics, launching successive waves of air attacks at night and targeting civilian population centers without regard for collateral damage, present the clearest example of terror bombing in modern warfare. Their attacks are not aimed at military infrastructure, but at creating a lasting sense of fear and terror in the minds of every Ukrainian. 

In the face of relentless attacks, Ukraine’s resolve remains unshaken. The stories of resilience and defiance in the cities of Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and beyond reflect a nation that refuses to be broken by fear. As Russia continues its campaign of terror, Ukraine’s fight is not just for survival but for the right to determine its future free from aggression.

Featured Image: Isaac Holt