Civilians ran for cover in downtown Dnipro on September 30 when Russian drones hit the central Ukrainian city in a daytime attack.
The strikes damaged apartments and offices in the city center, setting buildings and cars on fire. A dormitory and a cultural center were also hit.
The attack killed one person and injured at least 28, including two children, according to Serhiy Lysak, the head of the regional military administration.
A woman named Olena, whose family had resettled in Dnipro to escape the fighting in the Donetsk region, said she heard four explosions at close range.
“Alarms went off. Everyone was panicking. I told the girls to cover their heads, like that,” she said, throwing both arms over her head. “It was terrifying. Not once since we resettled here from the Donetsk region.… There's never been anything as frightening as today, not even back there” in Donetsk, Olena said.
Another resident, Maksim, was in his car as pieces of a damaged building rained down.
“My car was completely destroyed by the debris falling from the roof. Pieces of metal fell onto the hood, roof, and windshield,” he said. “I ended up underneath everything. Maybe it saved me. As I got out of my car, I saw that all the other cars were destroyed. I was in the epicenter -- right in front of the building where the explosion happened.”
The attack took place in the daytime, when many residents were shopping, working, or commuting.
Until recently, daytime air strikes on Ukrainian cities were relatively rare. But aerial threats during the day have increased noticeably in recent weeks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the strike “a brazen attack in broad daylight” in a post on X and said the attack shows that Ukraine’s allies must step up their pressure on Russia.
“Such strikes also demonstrate that the world’s sanctions on Russia must hit the aggressor much harder, and that all of us in Europe must build a reliable defense against Russian drones and missiles -- so that no country stands alone against this threat,” he wrote.
