Ukrainian veteran’s Kyiv letter lays bare the fear of round-the-clock Russian attacks

Updated 4 September 2026 — KYIV: Ukrainian veteran Roman Trokhymets published a dispatch from the capital on Wednesday, 2 September, describing how round-the-clock Russian attacks have led him to plan an emergency escape from his fifth-floor apartment. HLN brought the account to Flemish readers on Friday. Trokhymets wrote that he had again forgotten to buy a 20-metre rope, along with a respirator and fire extinguisher, to improve his chances of escaping if a strike set the building ablaze.

The account is personal testimony, not an official report of damage to Trokhymets’s home. His published dispatch says explosions and air-defence fire interrupted an otherwise ordinary evening while reports arrived of burning cars and apartments elsewhere in Kyiv. Trokhymets, a sergeant and former sniper who has spoken publicly about serving at the front, described a mixture of detachment, fear and determination after more than four years of full-scale war.

His words match a documented change in Kyiv’s security environment. The Associated Press reported on 4 September that Russian forces had begun attacking the capital during the day as well as at night, using fast jet-powered drones and repeatedly disrupting work, travel, shopping and schooling. AP separately reported that another drone hit a Kyiv residential building overnight into Friday and wounded three people.

The immediate danger was already visible earlier in the week. Ukraine’s National Police said a drone struck a high-rise building in the Podil district on 1 September, starting a fire across the 14th and 15th floors. Police reported that three residents aged between 22 and 39 suffered shrapnel wounds and were taken to hospital. Officers had received more than 40 reports of damaged property by 15:00 that day.

The broader significance of Trokhymets’s letter lies in the collapse of Kyiv’s former wartime rhythm. Night once carried the greatest expectation of attack; residents now face alerts throughout the day, while drone-jamming also disrupts navigation and transport, according to AP. The result is sustained pressure rather than a single emergency.

Belgium enters the story through its support for Ukraine, not through the letter itself. Belgium’s Foreign Ministry says the country had pledged €4.488 billion since February 2022 by April 2026, including funding for air defence and a €1.1 billion military commitment for 2026. Kyiv residents now await the next alerts as officials assess each strike. Whether the recent daytime campaign represents a lasting Russian operational shift remains unknown.