The Shahed burst into the center of Zaporiyia around 10 in the morning. It came flying from the Dnipro River, located a short distance away. Immediately, the air defense went into action. There were seconds when the sky was filled with machine gun bursts, while below, on the main avenue of the city - Sobornyi Street - morning traffic was building up.
The impacts hit the drone on one wing. Burning, the contraption started falling towards pedestrians in circles. The event was met with screams of terror by citizens fleeing in a hurry. It finally hit meters away from a busy intersection, generating a huge fireball.
Katerina Portna escaped the shrapnel defying all logic. Several cars were consumed by fire or riddled with metal fragments. She was only trapped by the airbags, which deployed upon impact from the shockwave.
"I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get out. I was also wearing my seatbelt," she explained to the journalist as she recovered from the shock. Her daughter hugged her father, who hurried to the scene upon hearing about the incident, and started to cry.
The scene in the midst of the city where about 700,000 people reside was one of pure chaos. "It's my home, it's my home!" a lady shouted completely beside herself as she watched the flames consume the entrance of her house.
The first responders who arrived at the scene began to extinguish the fires with fire extinguishers. "Get out of here, get out of here," one of them shouted.
Miraculously, the explosion did not kill or seriously injure anyone. Katerina herself, who was only meters away, ended up with just a minor scrape. The destructive force was directed towards the buildings, tearing chunks of the wall off.
Luck was less favorable the previous day. On Monday, Moscow forces located about 20 kilometers away launched an aerial assault on the metropolis and for the first time hit its central core with the feared FPVs, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that carry less explosive payload than the aforementioned Shahed but are much more accurate at killing.
They tested it 24 hours earlier. One of the UAVs hit a public transport minibus in one of the southern neighborhoods, killing three passengers. Two of the bodies lay on the asphalt until they were placed in white bags. The inside of the vehicle was filled with blood. The fire generated by the attack partially burned the bodywork.
It was not the only FPV assault on Tuesday. Hours later, another one of these contraptions hit a lamppost as it headed straight for a passenger bus and later, two more exploded against the same local government building.
In this latter case, it was more of a message, as these small AUVs only cause minor damage when directed at buildings, as Oleh Buryak, the head of the military administration of the Zaporiyia district, believes.
"If they had wanted to cause damage, they would have used a missile or a Shahed. It was part of their show. They attacked a high floor where no one was. They only archive things," he commented in statements to this newspaper.
The route and destination of the attacks
The aerial onslaught launched by Moscow against Zaporiyia is part of the current dynamic of the war in Ukraine, where with a front where advances are measured in meters, both sides have increased their attacks on the main localities of the adversary.
Commentator Mykhailo Dubynlanskyi equated this duel in May with the one between Iran and Iraq during the last century's war, which also focused on urban centers during a phase.
In a column published in The Kyiv Independent, Dubynlanskyi believes that "four decades later, history repeats itself. There have been no significant advances on the front, and the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation is becoming, above all, a 'war of cities'. Not only in Moscow, but now also in Kiev, long-range attacks against the enemy's rear are being pursued. The Kremlin leadership is confident that systematic aerial terror will force us to accept Russian conditions. We hope that regular attacks on Russian territory and the destruction of the enemy's economic potential will lead Putin to desperation and force him to abandon his unacceptable demands."
Moscow has increased its aerial aggressions against enclaves like the aforementioned Zaporiyia, but also against Dnipro, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and even Kiev. Just on Monday, Russian drones and missiles killed 10 people in the aforementioned Zaporiyia, the nearby city of Dnipro, and the northern city of Kharkiv, and injured many others.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to this alarming surge in bombings against urban centers on the 27th, stating that in just seven days the neighboring country's armed forces had launched 1,400 drones, 1,500 bombs weighing over 250 kilos, and 19 missiles against 15 Ukrainian regions.
"Almost daily bombings occur in Kherson, Zaporiyia, Kharkiv, or Sumy. The Russians attack the population, target residential buildings, and our civil infrastructure. Unfortunately, there are victims of this terror almost daily," the president wrote on social media.
Kiev also continues its harassment against Russian territory and its most significant enclaves. Zelensky himself reported that Ukrainian AUVs struck again this morning at the strategic Space Communications Center in Dubna, Moscow, located over 500 kilometers from the border. The president explained on social media that these facilities play a key role in "coordinating the activity of the Russian occupation contingent."
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin acknowledged that the main Russian city was undergoing yet another onslaught of Ukrainian drones around four in the morning and stated that the air defense had shot down at least 50 of these devices. The country's media reported on the closure of several airports.
The Russian Ministry of Defense specified that they had managed to destroy up to 419 AUVs that were intended to impact not only the capital but also 17 other regions of the country.
"The difference between Russia and Ukraine is that we target military objectives or strategic infrastructure. They want to terrorize civilians," opined Serhiy, a 40-year-old soldier, enjoying the sun on the riverside beach of Zaporiyia with his wife, Susana.
A Russian 250-kilo bomb, the so-called Cab, hit a few meters from their location on the 24th, injuring half a dozen bathers, including 3 children, as reported by local media.
The device left a huge hole in the sand, which is now covered.
Serhiy relies on the belief that the Russians "won't attack the same place twice."
But the Russian onslaught against Zaporiya continued throughout the day. In the afternoon, the population once again faced the punishment of Cabs and Grad rockets, leaving huge columns of smoke over the urban territory.
"Quick, to the shelters!" one of the waitresses at a local restaurant shouted around 5:17, as the detonations made the city tremble, as if it were a small earthquake.
One of the projectiles fell a few kilometers from the aforementioned Sobornyi avenue, in an area dominated by single-story houses. Several were razed by the event, which set gas supply pipes on fire.
Dozens of residents wandered among homes with doors torn off and cars with broken windows, while firefighters and rescue teams tried to confirm if there were any fatalities.
"There's a lady dead!" the radio exclaimed indicating another location.
One of the buildings was a kindergarten.
Tatiana Analolivna held her grandson's hand tightly. She said she was sitting in the living room when everything moved from side to side amid the roar. Her residence is meters away from the one crushed by the bomb.
"Damn them ten times!" was all she managed to say, almost with a voice broken by tears.