KHARKIV, Ukraine — A Russian-launched Shahed drone struck a residential building in Kharkiv just before 4 a.m., damaging the apartment of a local pensioner, as three areas of the city came under missile and drone attack in the early hours, RTÉ News reported from the scene.
Margarita Belkina, a resident of the building, said the blast shattered the sense of relative calm her neighborhood had felt since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
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“It’s scary now because this district has not been hit since the start of the invasion and, for four years, it was safe here. It’s only now that the Russians are bombing this area,” Belkina said.
Kharkiv, a city of 1.2 million inhabitants located about 30 kilometers from the frontline and the Russian border, has lived with the risk of air attacks for much of the war. Residents say strikes by missiles and drones have become a regular occurrence, forcing people to sleep in hallways, tape windows, and keep emergency bags close at hand.
RTÉ News met Belkina in the aftermath of the strike, which she said jolted her awake in the pre-dawn darkness. The Shahed drone hit the building just before 4 a.m., part of a wave that targeted at least three areas of the city overnight. The incident underscored the persistent threat to civilian neighborhoods even as front-line fighting rages to the east and south.
Belkina’s account reflects the strain felt across Kharkiv as a once-stable district absorbed a fresh shock. Her building was damaged in the impact, and residents picked through debris to assess what could be salvaged. With repeated attacks often coming at night, families have grown used to sirens and hurried trips to safer rooms, while emergency crews fan out at first light to survey new damage.
City officials have repeatedly urged people to heed air-raid warnings and limit exposure near windows during alerts, advice that has become routine in Kharkiv’s apartment blocks. While some districts had experienced fewer direct hits for months at a time, residents say the shifting pattern of strikes has widened the map of risk.
The latest drone strike again brought the war’s reach into the intimate spaces of daily life: kitchens scattered with glass, doors blown off hinges, hallways littered with plaster. For Belkina and her neighbors, the return of explosions to a part of Kharkiv that had felt comparatively insulated deepened a sense of unease that has lingered for years.
RTÉ News Europe Editor Tony Connelly spoke with Belkina on the ground in Kharkiv. Video of their conversation is available on RTÉ platforms.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
