It is 08:13 (05:13 GMT) Monday morning in the center of the Ukrainian capital.
This is the second strike on this street in the Chevchchenko residential area and at least the fourth since 6:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) in the city, already hit a week ago to the day.
In the middle of a crossroads, 100 meters from the first explosion, the police officers Oleg and Yaroslav parked their car marked with the police.
They prevent the circulation of vehicles and access to the buildings hit by the kamikaze drones, so that it was not possible for the AFP journalists to say what sheltered the targets hit. The town hall reported a residential building partially destroyed by the attack which killed at least three people.
A few residents look towards the site of the first explosion. Smoke still rises in the distance.
Suddenly, cries, and a movement of panic. Heads lift to the sky. People are running for cover.
At first distant, the sound of a drone becomes more precise when the machine passes over the neighborhood. Clearly visible, even if it is several tens of meters high, the white delta wing flies over buildings.
Like other police officers or soldiers present in the neighborhood, Yaroslav grabs his Kalashnikov, kneels on the ground and begins to shoot towards the sky in the direction of the drone.
Cracklings of firearms resound in the neighborhood, piecemeal or in bursts.
But nothing helps. The machine continues its flight, oblique towards the ground and comes to crash 200 meters further. The explosion echoes in the streets.
Less than 10 minutes later, around 08:20 (05:20 GMT), the scene repeated itself in the same place. Third hit in a row.
Screams, looks to the sky to try to locate the drone, the sound of the machine flying and approaching, panic, shots in the air, then a loud explosion with a plume of smoke, this time at two blocks from the previous explosion.
The anti-aircraft alarm sirens never sounded before these last two strikes, noted an AFP journalist.
“You know, we’ve been here maybe half an hour and four drones went down,” said policeman Irasolav, still nervous after firing. “It’s a bit scary, but it’s our job, what can we do? It’s normal because it’s our job. We have to do this.”
200 meters from the explosions, two women and an elderly man are still sheltering under the low wall of a building, next to a policeman. They want to leave the place.
“Let’s go to the subway, there’s a bomb shelter,” one of the women said to the other two people. “When the weapons start crackling, it means they (the drones) are flying somewhere. Can we go out now? We want to go to the park” nearby, she asks the policeman, who lets them go.
Sacha, 22, lives in a building near where the drones hit. “I was awakened by the first explosion around 6:30 a.m.,” he said, his face worried.
He stands close to a porch of a building that serves as a shelter. “I’m scared,” he said, refusing to talk anymore.
Lessya lives in a building at the crossroads blocked by the car of the two policemen. “We believe in our armed forces and we believe in our victory and we will not be intimidated by these explosions,” she said on the sidewalk.
“They don’t scare us. We are used to it and always believe that we will win, no matter what. Yes, it’s scary (…) but they will never intimidate us”, continues this 60-year-old resident. year.
