Ira Hadetska, 28, returned to Kyiv a few months ago, assuming it was safe
(Picture: Tom Mutch)“It’s 24.02 déjà vu,” a friend texted me shortly after the missiles slammed into a university park, government buildings and popular tourist attractions in Kyiv on Monday morning. She was referring to the day in late February on which the Russians first launched their invasion — a date etched into the minds of Ukrainians across the country and indeed the world.
This week, 10 months on, hundreds of civilians crowded back into Kyiv’s underground metro stations to seek shelter for the first time since the war began. Troops and first responders could be seen all over the streets. People’s phone were full of messages from friends and relatives, texting them to make sure they were OK. For some, it was the news they had been dreading for the majority of the last year: at least 19 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in the barrage of over 80 missiles fired throughout Ukraine – Putin’s revenge for the Ukrainian army’s string of major battlefield successes in Kharkiv and Kherson last month.
