Russia’s air attacks are disrupting daily life across Ukraine. Here’s how five major cities are adapting to the growing danger.

Jet-powered drones, which Russia began using extensively in late summer 2026, have changed the rhythm of life in Ukraine’s major cities. Air raid sirens now sound constantly, and strikes hit factories, warehouses, train stations, shopping malls, business centers, gas stations, and even kindergartens. Residents have been forced to adapt to the new challenges the war is bringing. With help from colleagues at other regional outlets, Ukrainska Pravda examined how constant attacks and alerts are changing everyday life in five major cities in eastern and central Ukraine: Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv. Meduza summarizes its reporting.

Kharkiv

Business: Kharkiv is near the front line, and air raid sirens sound about 10 times a day on average. Even so, its factories have stayed open, and entrepreneurs are registering new companies. Shopping malls keep operating during air raid alerts, although some stores close. At one mall, stores also rent space in the parking area, which is considered a shelter. Restaurants and other establishments close between 8 and 10 p.m., and stores between 9 and 10 p.m.

Schools and hospitals: Children in Kharkiv attend classes either online or in underground schools. Hospitals have shelters with their own backup power. At the regional clinical hospital, an underground hospital is under construction and will be connected to the main building. Regular attacks and the arrival of wounded soldiers from the front are straining the healthcare system, so surgeons often postpone scheduled operations.

Transportation: Russian forces have recently carried out frequent strikes on gas stations. Some stations have cables strung around their perimeters to stop small drones. Public transportation keeps running even during alerts, and rides are free, though this means services run less frequently. Residents have also grown accustomed to ignoring alerts. “Even during an attack, life on the streets carries on at the same pace as long as the strike isn’t too close,” Ukrainska Pravda said.

Zaporizhzhia

Business: Like Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia is near the front line. Shopping malls have been hit particularly often lately. Almost all of the city’s large malls have been destroyed, but smaller “neighborhood” malls remain open. Heavy industry has suffered the greatest losses: After a series of missile strikes in September, the Zaporizhstal steel plant, the city’s largest employer, stopped operating.

Schools: The city has 92 schools, almost all of which combine in-person and remote learning. It also has 10 underground schools, where children can keep studying without interruption, even during air raid alerts.

Transportation: First-person-view drones attacked public transportation in Zaporizhzhia at least twice in September. As a result, minibuses serving the Kushuhum community, an area between Zaporizhzhia and the front line, are being covered with metal mesh. Even these minibuses, however, no longer reach the community’s southernmost outskirts, which are closest to the front.

Culture: Despite constant attacks, the city hosts many small events. Well-known musicians and stand-up comedians come to perform. Several movie theaters, theaters, a philharmonic concert hall, and other venues remain open and, according to Ukrainska Pravda, draw sizable crowds.

Dnipro

Business: In September 2026, air raid alerts were issued in the city five times as often as a year earlier. Some shopping malls close whenever there is a threat; others base their decisions on the threat level. With the war now in its fifth year, shoppers tend to ignore alerts and wait by the entrance for the mall to reopen.

Transportation: Services that send staff to customers, as well as postal services, suspend operations during alerts. But public transportation and minibuses keep running despite the attacks. Rail service is more vulnerable, with trains delayed or canceled. Dnipro is also a departure point for residents of other cities: People from Zaporizhzhia, for example, usually have to take a bus to Dnipro and board a train there.

Healthcare and culture: Private clinics stay open even during alerts; some require patients to sign liability waivers. Public clinics stop seeing patients only when the threat level is “red,” indicating a missile threat. Theater performances pause during alerts so everyone can evacuate to the basement.

Safety: The city has too few shelters, and portable concrete shelters on the streets often become dumping grounds. Many Dnipro residents therefore rely on the two-wall rule during alerts and rush to shelters only when there is a threat of ballistic missile strikes or they hear explosions. Still, there has been no large-scale exodus from the city. Moving costs money, and many people are afraid of losing their jobs. Instead, Dnipro has become a hub for people displaced from areas near the front line.

Odesa

Business: Large shopping malls and retail chains suspend operations when there is a missile threat, but many stores ignore drone threats. Small businesses are more likely to do this. Business owners have adapted, though they face additional costs for repairs and backup power sources. Some stores reopen almost immediately after being hit, as long as they can still serve customers on the premises.

Schools: Schools try to keep as much teaching in person as possible, though alerts regularly force children to go down to shelters. Several alerts in a day can disrupt the entire class schedule. In other cities where schools still offer at least some in-person learning, parents also complain that children are learning less because of the constant evacuations to basements.

Transportation: Alerts do not stop transportation services, but attacks, power outages, and breakdowns in the overhead lines that power trams and trolleybuses do. Minibuses adapt fastest to these disruptions. Alerts often delay intercity buses and trains traveling to or from Odesa. Over the past month, the city’s gas stations have also begun closing more often during alerts. Sirens now sound about 10 times a day in Odesa, especially during waves of drone attacks.

Culture: Events continue, but organizers must have a plan for air raid alerts. Usually, that means either pausing the event and evacuating to a shelter or rescheduling it.

Kyiv

Safety: In September, not a single day passed without an air raid alert in the Ukrainian capital. Alerts lasted a total of 242 hours and 40 minutes. In response, the authorities introduced a more flexible system of threat levels: At the “yellow” level, many institutions can continue providing services if there is no direct missile or drone threat. Kyiv residents use underground parking garages, basements, and the subway as shelters, though the two-wall rule remains the most popular way to seek protection. The authorities have promised to install portable shelters on the streets.

Transportation: Strikes on bridges over the Dnipro River have made it harder to travel between Kyiv’s left and right banks. Aboveground public transportation stops during alerts, but it now runs an hour later in the evenings because curfew hours have been shortened. Gas stations also close during alerts.

Electricity and communications: In October, Kyiv returned to emergency power cuts and scheduled outages to stabilize the grid. Strikes on data centers have also slowed mobile internet in some neighborhoods. Postal operators close their branches when sirens sound.

Schools and hospitals: Hospitals can continue operating at the “yellow” threat level and try to avoid canceling scheduled operations unless there are large-scale missile attacks. Schools teach online or use a mix of remote and in-person instruction if they have shelters. At one school in the Solomianskyi district with three rooms partially below ground, for example, only first through fifth graders and 10th and 11th graders attend in person, and lessons last 35 minutes. Ukrainska Pravda said Kyiv residents often have to move to other cities specifically for their children’s education: Constant air raid alerts make regular attendance at Kyiv schools impossible.