The night was in the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, as in all regions of the country, as the first detonations of the attacks by the Russian Army were sounded, which began during the early hours of Thursday. From early in the morning, anti-aircraft alarms were heard in the center of the city, as well as different explosions throughout the day. Already at dawn, the sirens of the police cars alternated with the traffic in the midst of the uncertainty of the inhabitants of Kiev. Thousands of people in the streets followed the news of the offensive and the invasion of the country ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin through their mobile phones.
In the center of the Ukrainian capital, half deserted, no flights of military planes were seen during the day, but a feeling of panic and psychosis was perceived, especially in the train and bus stations. “I don’t watch the news, only my children,” resolved Tatiana Molodtsova, a 32-year-old aesthetic clinic employee, with a smile as she extended her arms in a gesture of safety over Eva, 13, and Rostik, 9. They were waiting, without even having obtained a ticket, for a train that would take them to Lviv, a city in the west, from which they intended to make the leap to Poland. “No one wants a war, but this is already a war,” said the woman.
The bus station was also the scene of moments of nervousness due to the inability of many people to get tickets. Vlad, 28, tenderly embraced his two-year-old son Danya as he handed him over to his wife, Tatiana, 26, who was waiting for an opportunity to get away from the uncertainty in the capital and travel west .
Sasha, a 22-year-old psychologist, was also looking to leave town. She took the metro at the Plaza de la Independencia stop pulling a suitcase on wheels and, on it, a carrier in which she carried her cat, Gosha. He was leaving Kiev for the safety of a smaller city, Khmelnytsky, some 350 kilometers to the west. The avenues were filled with traffic while it was still dark. Cars with families on board left the city, heading west or towards the countryside, far from the Russian border, located 400 kilometers away.
Some hotels in the city closed before the beginning of the Russian offensive and evacuated their clients. In one of these establishments, the Khreschatyk, some people crowded this Thursday with their suitcases, ready to leave the city. Several narrated between tears, speaking on their mobile phones, the situation in the capital of Ukraine.
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In Kiev, preparations for possible aggression from Moscow had been discreet until now. But on Wednesday night, after the proclamation of the state of emergency by the Government, the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, announced the installation of checkpoints at the main entrances to the capital and the reinforcement of passenger controls at stations railway and the airport. “We stay here, it’s safer; we are going to wait here, ”explained to Agence France Presse a young woman who did not want to give her name and who carried her documentation, cell phone chargers and a lot of cash in her bag. “The essentials” to flee in times of war.
At five in the morning on Thursday, a projectile hit an advertising board on Vasilkovskaya street, about eight kilometers from the city center, in front of a brick building that houses a small cinema and a water company. The impact did not cause personal injury, but the noise did raise the neighborhood. The area remained cordoned off since early in the morning while soldiers and policemen collected remains of shrapnel, which appeared scattered dozens of meters around. The agents were accumulating them in a truck.
Taras, one of the soldiers, explained that the impact was due to the launch of a projectile from a Russian Army plane. This uniformed man showed in his hand the pieces of metal that were found on the ground, which appeared sprinkled with glass. There was no official confirmation that the damage had been caused by a Russian fighter.
Ludmila Sofronyuk, 47, said that they were in bed when they heard the explosion. The window of her apartment was not affected by the blast wave, but others in her building were. Some shops and businesses on the street, such as the Pumb bank branch, were also damaged by the explosion. Next to the tape that marks the perimeter, groups of neighbors formed who, between surprise and fear, commented on what had happened, but life continued with a certain normality under the rain in the Ukrainian capital.
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