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Ukrainian officials are weighing a relaxation of Kyiv’s curfew rules as days of deadly, near-continuous Russian attacks on the capital and its surrounding region force a rethink of measures that have governed daily life since the early days of the 2022 full-scale invasion.
The government is drawing up plans to “adapt the work of the state, the capital, the economy and critical infrastructure to the new tactics of Russian attacks”, Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said last week. Moscow, he said, “is trying to paralyse economic activity in the capital and in large cities”.
Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities have endured regular drone and missile barrages for months. But the attacks that hit the capital in the final days of August were different.
Beginning on August 27, Russian long-range drones flew towards Kyiv in small, near-continuous waves, striking commercial warehouses, energy infrastructure and residential buildings over five consecutive days. The attacks triggered huge fires and sent plumes of smoke across the city.
At least 49 people have been killed in Kyiv and its surrounding region over the past week. Thirty-eight died after an ammunition depot hit by a Russian drone exploded, devastating parts of a village 30km west of the capital. Another 11 were killed in an overnight drone and missile attack on Monday.
Russia used an unprecedented number of jet-powered drones in the attacks, a newer weapon that Ukraine is struggling to shoot down.
Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said on television that Ukraine was destroying about 60 per cent of Russia’s jet-powered Geran-4 drones, far below the 90 to 95 per cent interception rate its air defences regularly achieve against older models.
For Kyiv residents, the near-constant trickle of drones has meant days punctuated by air raid alerts and sirens screaming across the city. At the capital’s main railway station, crowds waited for hours as attacks delayed dozens of trains by up to 12 hours.
Each air raid alert cuts the metro link between central Kyiv and residential districts across the Dnipro, as trains stop serving open-air stations. On September 1, the first day of school, city authorities allowed some pupils to study from home.
Between August 27 and September 1, Kyiv endured 60 separate air raid alerts, lasting a combined 52 hours.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Monday that the city’s “defence council” had asked the government to change security protocols “to ensure the city can continue functioning in the current conditions”, including by allowing trains on the green metro line to keep crossing the Dnipro during air raid alerts.
City officials also asked the government to “ease” the midnight-to-5am curfew to allow freight traffic to cross Kyiv and residents to travel to and from railway stations at night, as delayed trains and other intercity and international services have increasingly arrived during curfew hours.
Koretskyi said the government would review policies regarding “civilian access to operational information about air threats”. Millions of Ukrainians at present rely on unofficial Telegram channels that track drone and missile launches in near real time.
The disruption has also reached parliament, where air raid alerts have repeatedly interrupted sessions and raised questions over how lawmakers can continue voting on legislation.
Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said on Tuesday that MPs would soon be able to continue plenary sessions from the parliament’s bomb shelter. But one MP told the FT the shelter was too cramped.
Kyrylo Budanov, head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office, said on Tuesday that he expected the “terror” of drone attacks on the capital to continue until Russia’s parliamentary elections from September 18 to 20.
“The Russians need to be shown some impressive picture of victory because they don’t feel victory on the battlefield. That’s why there’s terror.”
