Kyiv air raid alerts at record high as Russia launches round the clock strikes

The alerts are also disrupting the start of the new academic year and forcing school children to leave their classrooms throughout the day.

When another air raid began, some students at the Drahomanov Ukrainian State University in central Kyiv headed underground; others stayed chatting on the street, such is the normality of these alerts.

Diana, a student teacher, said she did not sleep well at night and her schedule was disrupted during the day. “Sometimes it is hard because most of the day I need to go to safe places, like the metro or somewhere underground,” she said. “It’s a terrible time, but thank God we are alive. We go day by day.”

Ihor, studying to become a chemistry teacher, said he was used to the alerts after many years of war but life was still hard. “We are annoyed by the sirens because they are constant,” he said. “It destroys the quality of our education… We cannot study normally.”

After a drone attack in a residential part of central Kyiv, students from a nearby school were evacuated for fear of explosions or a secondary, so-called “double-tap” attack.

Sophia, 17, told us it was very sad but this is what life was like now. “It’s a little bit scary to live here in Kyiv,” she said. “It’s very difficult.” The interview was then interrupted by another siren. “We need to go,” she said. “It is very dangerous for you to stand in the streets. Maybe we can have a second detonation.”