Kyiv hit with Russian attack: What it felt like on the ground

The Hill

2 days ago

Robert Sherman is a White House correspondent for NewsNation. He is reporting from Ukraine. Subscribe to his newsletter: Frontlines with Robert Sherman here.
(NewsNation) — It almost looks normal.
Maybe it's the bustling McDonald's our team got coffee at this morning.
Maybe it's the young couple sharing an ice cream cone in Independence Square.
Or the police officers stationed on the highway with their radar guns preparing to write tickets to speeders, as if that were the biggest concern in the world.
It look little time for reality to sink in for our NewsNation crew.
WATCH: Sleepless night in Kyiv
Overnight, Ukraine's capital of Kyiv came under fire from a Russian attack. Sirens blared and intercoms urged people to take shelter as people hastily headed for lower ground. For some, that meant taking shelter in the subway station beneath the city for safety.
That first missile impact, which rocked the capital, sent a pulsing wave through the whole city, rattling my hotel. It was several miles away, but the laws of physics (and for that matter the might of modern warfare) made it seem anything but.
We stayed put in the center of Kyiv, which locals say is about as safe as it gets here. The sunrise couldn't come sooner. But when it did, new clarity came with the beating rays of this Eastern European Thursday morning.
Our team made our way to one of the impact sites in Kyiv hours after the attacks subsided, and what we saw was a residential building blown to pieces. Half of the structure was collapsing in on itself as first responders worked hastily to pick through the rubble.
Even before we spoke with the local officials leading the operation, we knew what was happening. The giveaway was the countless faces, concealed by cupped hands over mouths, staring incredulously at the site. The anxiety in their eyes, in too much shock to produce tears, could not unglue from the building.
Hundreds were waiting for news. Did their loved ones survive? Could there be a harmless reason they were considered 'missing'?
VIDEO: Back in Ukraine
Moment by moment, as first responders called the surnames of family members, the painful truth became evident. They were gone. Buried beneath the rubble and lost in a single moment in time.
The death toll from this one incident alone is still fluid as of this writing Thursday evening, but it's confirmed to be at least 16 including two children, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The president also says more than 150 are injured including 16 children and six police officers.
It was impossible to know the nature of the drone and missile attack from our vantage point in the early morning hours. Even standing there at the scene, I couldn't possibly get the full scope of what transpired.
But when I started to see the videos coming in of the Kyiv skyline and multiple plumes of fire erupting, everything started to come into focus. It was a large-scale attack that even locals called 'crazy.'
Just days after President Trump announced he was upping the pressure on Russia to make strides toward peace, imposing a new deadline of 10 or 12 days from Monday which would be sometime in the territory of Aug. 7-9, Russia made it's next move.
VIDEO: What's New, What's the Same?
Kyiv didn't sleep last night. And in our conversations with the people on the streets today, they don't anticipate that will be changing anytime soon.
Our NewsNation coverage from Ukraine will continue through next week. I'll be filing some exclusive reports in the coming day that I hope will shed some insight on what this war looks like nearly three and a half years in.
If you have a question or observation, please write to me at [e-mail] or through any of my social media channels such as Facebook, X, Instagram or TikTok.