As missiles hit Kyiv, we are of course scared – but the war has made us practical | Nataliya Gumenyuk

FFirst of all, it’s scary to be bombarded. For five hours and 37 minutes, dozens of rockets launched from the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea hit Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, where I live and work. Each of them could destroy your house. As a journalist traveling to the areas most affected by war, I have seen the horrific damage these strikes can cause. A single hit can destroy a multi-story building, leaving a scorched skeleton – over the weekend an attack like this in Zaporizhzhia taken at least 13 lives.

Today the Ukrainians came under one of the biggest air strikes since the start of the Russian invasion. For the first time, missile strikes hit the very center of the Ukrainian capital, where at least five people were killed and dozens injured. These were mainly commuters going to work on Monday mornings. Five more airstrikes followed.

The Kremlin has targeted all major Ukrainian cities, including Dnipro and Kharkiv, Lviv and even Ivano-Frankivsk in the relatively safe west of the country. According to the state emergency service, at least 11 people died and 60 others were injured.

President Zelenskiy recorded a video statement indicating that the main targets were infrastructure, in particular the electricity grid. The government has acknowledged that at least 11 important targets were damaged, but most power has now been restored. In my Kyiv flat, the electricity lasted no more than 10 minutes, but areas on the outskirts of the city and parts of Chernihiv, Lviv and Sumy still have no electricity.

What makes these attacks so unnerving is the inaccuracy of Russian missiles. Their airstrikes consistently miss targets. You might see this as a good thing from a practical military standpoint – but it means anyone, at any time, can become a victim. Ukrainian vegan and animal rights activist Pavlo Vyshebaba, who now serves in the army, posted a photo of a bomb crater where a playground once stood in Kyiv’s central park. He referred to a previous Russian statement that they would attack military decision-making centers. “It was our ‘decision centre’, where we decided if my daughter wanted a cone or ice cream on a stick,” he joked. At such times, dark humor is a kind of psychological self-defense.

The president said the other goal was to terrorize Ukrainians and attack our morale. Over the past few months, we have seen the Russian army suffer battlefield casualties. Ukraine’s early successes in the Kharkiv region were largely attributed to the Russians being taken by surprise. But these successes endure; Ukrainian troops, with great difficulty, continued to liberate village after village in the Donbass and Kherson regions.

October 8 explosion on the bridge linking occupied Crimea with Russia – a personal project of Vladimir Putin – was also a huge symbolic blow against the Russian leadership. The Ukrainian government has not confirmed it was their operation, but Ukrainian security services have hinted they may be behind the attack by publishing a celebratory photo of the burning bridge. This caused an incredible stir among Russian war propagandists and calls for immediate retaliation. Influential hawks in Russia had previously criticized their forces for their lack of tenacity.

Today’s attack on Ukraine looks like an attempt to please this particular Russian audience and show that the Kremlin is capable of hurting Ukraine. Also on October 8, Sergey Surovikin was appointed commander of all Russian forces invading Ukraine. Known for his toughness, Surovikin, who commanded forces in Syria during the Russian military intervention there, could use this immediate onslaught as a chance to establish himself.

And so, civilians who had enjoyed a bit of peace are once again on high alert. Today, schoolchildren are moved to basements. Businesses are closed and meetings cancelled. Kyiv’s metro – which started operating in the spring – again served as a bomb shelter. After a few months of enjoying life in Kyiv, many might consider leaving again.

Yet after seven months of war, Ukrainians have found their ways to deal with the anger. After a few hours of checking in with colleagues, friends and relatives across the country, the Ukrainian internet is full of posts about how much money has been donated to the military.

Ukrainians also fear that after a few hours of compassion from people around the world, we may hear new calls for surrender. These, coming from the safety of distant European cities, seem not only inappropriate, but unethical. The multiple crimes committed in the occupied territories such as Bucha and Izium show that the alternatives to resistance can be not only persecution, but also mass executions and torture.

We’re scared right now, but it’s different from living in perpetual fear. Ukrainian defiance does not mean bravado. More than anything, the feeling you get from sitting in a basement staring at the air raid warning map for five hours and 37 minutes is pragmatism. We don’t think about big ideas, but about electricity and water supply, documents, daily rations and emergency plans.

Of more than 80 rockets fired at Ukraine today, at least half are believed to have been shot down by Ukrainian air defense. What may seem terrifying and inevitable can be stopped with proper defenses. It looks like the only rational response to the irrational assault on our parks, universities, museums. It must continue.