Streets of Kyiv largely deserted amid persistent Russian bombardment

KYIV (Ukraine) • The Ukrainian capital Kyiv feels almost empty, its wide avenues mostly deserted except for soldiers at various sandbagged checkpoints.

But it is a sprawling city where an estimated two million people are still residing - half its pre-war population - in kilometres of residential areas and apartment blocks that span the two sides of the Dnieper River.

When an artillery shell slammed into an apartment building in the Obolon district in the city's north just after dawn on Monday, many residents were jolted from their sleep.

After more than two weeks of bombardment in the capital, they had grown used to the sound of artillery strikes - but they had never thought their building would be a target.

"We do not have a military target near us," said Mr Yuriy Yurchik, 30. "We did not think we ourselves would be a target."

In a flash, a single shell at 5am struck the apartment block and killed one person, wounded 10 others, and left 70 others shaken and homeless.

Hours later, just a few kilometres away in the Kurenivka neighbourhood, the remnants of a rocket hit a street as shoppers queued up outside a kiosk for sausages and milk, and a taxi ferrying a customer passed by. One person was killed and six were wounded there.

Russian forces have been striking the northern suburbs persistently since the first day of the invasion, when advance units managed to reach the city's centre, only to be killed in a firefight.

In some outlying districts, the two sides are fighting at close quarters as Russian forces probe Ukrainian defences.

One American journalist died and a second was wounded when their car came under fire in the district of Irpin on Sunday.

Three Ukrainian soldiers also died in the same area.

As Russia steps up its air attacks around the country, and Ukrainian air defence systems shoot down incoming missiles, residents on the ground sometimes find themselves caught between a bewildering array of sudden explosions.

At the apartment building in Kyiv's Obolon district early on Monday, it was an artillery shell, city officials said.

In the Kurenivka neighbourhood later that morning, it was the remnant of a rocket. And at a shopping centre in the western part of the city, it was another artillery shell.

Yet, even as explosions sounded off in the middle distance and the roar of rocket launches pierced the air, people in Obolon, in northern Kyiv, walked to shops and gathered outside a bank hoping to draw their pensions.

After the blast, Mr Yurchik and his family gathered their things and began to make their way down to the street. Firemen outside were dousing the fire and carrying the wounded out on stretchers.

Mr Yurchik's father, a security guard at a nearby secondary school, was waiting and rushed them into the school basement with other survivors.

Back at the wrecked apartment building, after the fire was out, Mr Yurchik's father, Konstantin, sifted through his damaged home.

A mechanical engineer and Soviet army veteran, he said he would not flee. "We will rebuild," he said. "After a while."

It was the first time the immediate neighbourhood had been hit, he said, and he bristled at a suggestion that the area was becoming too dangerous.

He had protected 13 displaced people overnight in the school basement, and he said he will keep doing so. And now the government has promised the men in the area weapons, he said. "I will take up arms," he said. "My house is there."

His son said he would stay, too. One of his friends has already joined the territorial defence forces. "If there is a choice," he said, "I will stay and defend, because it is our territory. And God is on our side. We did not hurt others, they invaded us."

Mr Yurchik paused, before saying: "But it is a pity to begin your day checking who is alive."

NYTIMES