A Maltese resident, who is of English descent, found himself caught in the midst of the Russian bombing attacks in Kyiv on 10 October.
He said that he experienced first-hand how drones blew up residential areas in the Ukrainian capital city.
“I saw a kid’s park which had a massive hole in it and there were the remains of a missile,” he said.
The man, who would like to remain anonymous, spoke to The Malta Independent on Sunday about this harrowing experience and what it was like to reside in a country under imminent threat.
Experiencing Kyiv
To get to Kyiv, he caught a 16-hour train from Przemyśl, Poland. During the trip, many Ukrainian military men with guns and dogs boarded the train to check passports and documents.
Once he arrived in Kyiv once again there were many military men with guns who conducted security checks on all passengers to make sure nobody posed a threat.
He explained how he found the whole experience very strange. People were getting on with their lives as if a war was not taking place but then in the same street, there would be remnants of the Russian invasion, which started on 24 February.
Somebody would be buying a coffee on the same road where there would be anti-tank weaponry, bunkers and trenchers set up.
“There weren’t many men walking around in the streets because most of them were in the military,” he said.
Despite living in a city stained with memories of violence and invasion, the Ukrainians went on with their day like any other day.
“One thing I can say about the Ukrainians is that they're really strong people and they're really patriotic,” he said.
While he was in Kyiv he would get notified about bombings happening all over the country.
He explained that people in Ukraine were told about any air raids through a mobile application. The application would notify the user of any bombings taking place, and it would advise them to take shelter.
This worked well for people who were in residential areas where they were not able to hear the air sirens.
“I would be notified about a bombing once or twice a day, but it was only on the 10th that the bombings were actually in Kyiv,” he said.
The day of the bombing
This is how it all happened… at around 8am he said he was awakened by his roommate in a panic after she was alerted that they needed to seek shelter because the city was under attack.
They ran into a nearby subway to seek shelter.
“The excuse for bombing the country was to hit military stations and energy plants, but I experienced first-hand that this was not the case,” he said.
“Russia sent drones that blew up residential areas,” he said.
As he waited in the subway, at one point there was a loud explosion which came from right outside the shelter they were in. A lot of black smoke formed which caused everybody to retreat deeper into the subway.
While waiting in the subway he could hear the shelling going on outside. After waiting there for around three hours, he decided to run back to his apartment to get some blankets, pillows, food and water.
When he went back out into the street he saw that the whole city was covered with black smoke.
“It was terrifying outside,” he said.
After retrieving his items he found shelter in a garage.
Inside the garage, there were many children huddled together with their families as the city was being showered by bombs. Children were playing to pass the time, while the parents nervously stood by waiting for the shelling to stop.
Overall he said that this lasted around six hours.
Once he stepped out of the garage he got to experience the aftermath and the brutality of the missile strikes. He described everything as quite chaotic.
“There were a lot of ambulances and police cars in the streets. The roads were damaged. There were people trying to put out a fire,” he said.
“Amid the chaos there were others who just got on with their day, walking their dog as if nothing happened. This type of life has become the norm for people in Ukraine,” he said.
Two days after the attacks, he took a train to Poland and this is where he resides today.