On Wednesday morning, the Russians launched missiles at the Ukrainian capital from strategic bombers from their territory. The air alert in the city lasted for almost three hours. The missiles hit Kyiv in several waves from different directions. The wreckage of the downed missiles fell in several districts of the city.

In one of the districts, an 18-storey building caught fire. The fire engulfed the top eight floors. Apartments were burning on both sides of the building. It seemed that rocket fragments had pierced the building, from which 60 residents were evacuated. Ambulances barely had time to take out the wounded, and after the fire was extinguished, rescuers began to find bodies under the rubble.

Nadia, 22, ran out of her house in just her pyjamas and slippers, but with her cat in her arms. She did not find the other cat in the smoke-filled apartment.

"I woke up to the house shaking violently," Nadia told Evening Kyiv, "I opened my eyes and saw the chandelier swinging over my head. My mother and younger brother came running. The windows in their rooms were blown out by the blast. And then the neighbours started to smoke heavily in the apartment. Although my mum was shouting for me to take my clothes and run outside, I started looking for the cat. I wet a rag, covered my face and breathed through it. Then we went down the stairs from the 11th floor."

Another resident of the affected building, Iryna, watched in horror as her one-room apartment was destroyed.

"There is almost nothing left after the fire. I don't know what to do now and where to go," the woman said in tears.

Leonid Petrenko, a local resident, told Evening Kyiv that the blast wave in his apartment smashed all the windows on the balcony.

"When I saw that the apartments opposite were burning, I immediately ran out into the yard. I've lived here for a long time and used to work as an ambulance driver, so I know all the entrances and exits well. And it's easy to get lost in our yards. So I decided to help in any way I could. The paramedics took away many victims, including some who were seriously injured.

Doctors hospitalised my friend's pregnant daughter with a suspected pneumothorax. One man told me that during the air raid, his wife hid the children in the bathroom and went to the kitchen to make them tea. At that moment, she was hit by a piece of glass," said Leonid.

According to him, among the victims were children who were poisoned by carbon monoxide or suffered cuts.

The blast wave smashed windows in almost all apartments of the 18-storey building. Many apartments and neighbouring buildings were left without glass.