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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Nataliya Gumenyuk

In Kyiv, we remain fearless. But war is becoming a backdrop to everyday life

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, inspects Javelin anti-tank missiles during a visit to the Donetsk region of the country on Thursday.
Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy inspects Javelin anti-tank missiles during a visit to the Donetsk region of the country on Thursday. Photograph: EyePress News/Rex/Shutterstock

This week I had my first nightmare about war. In the dream, I woke up to find that Russia had attacked my home city of Kyiv: there was no internet connection, and no way of finding out what had happened.

I had this dream on Wednesday, the night on which – according to western intelligence – Russia was most likely to begin its attack on Ukraine. Over the last few months, we Ukrainians have of course considered various scenarios and contingency plans, but mainly we have kept calm. But when the US, the UK and dozens of other states evacuated their embassies from the capital, it felt different.

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