Masha’s husband was fighting on the front line. But she was the one killed by a Russian drone

It was not meant to be Masha. Her husband, Danylo Yivzhenko, is the soldier in the family. As a combat medic with Ukraine’s Third Separate Assault Brigade, he made the decision to go to war, knowing the risk. Masha was a civilian, back home in Kyiv, worrying about her husband on the front line.

But it was Masha, 29, who was killed by the Russians when a powerful drone struck her office building in the Ukrainian capital on September 25.

It’s an injustice that Yivzhenko cannot comprehend. “I am a soldier and I am fighting against Russia. If a Russian military drone or a ballistic missile, or whatever else, kills me – that is fair. We kill Russians. Russians kill us. We are servicemen; we understand what we are doing,” he told CNN.

“Killing a soldier is horrible, but it is normal. But Masha was a civilian. She did not assemble drones, she did not hold a weapon in her hands, she did not wear a military uniform. She was a civilian in a civilian city who was simply doing her civilian job that day.”

Daily life as it was known in Kyiv stopped on August 27, when Russia began pounding the city with near non-stop aerial assaults. Since then, not a single day has passed without an air raid warning in the city. On average, there have been seven air raid alerts a day. Some days, there have been as many as 13.

The Ukrainian military is increasingly unable to defend Kyiv from these assaults because of critical shortages of air defense weapons to bring down Russia’s missiles and its newest jet-powered drones.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been begging allies to help, and the Ukrainian military is racing to develop effective interceptors domestically – but neither has yet led to a meaningful shift.

In just over a month – between August 27 and Oct 4 – at least 98 people have been killed and 435 injured in Kyiv and the wider Kyiv region, a number that is significantly higher than in previous months.

Several high-profile buildings at the heart of the capital have been struck by Russian drones during this period, including the headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Academy of Sciences, High Council of Justice and a TV and internet provider’s data center.

Russia consistently claims it only strikes military targets, despite ample evidence of civilian sites being struck on a regular basis.

Russia used to launch its aerial attacks overnight under the cover of darkness, to minimize Kyiv’s chances of intercepting them. This meant people were often exhausted after a sleepless night in a shelter, but their lives could go on relatively as normal during the day.

But Russia’s newest jet-powered drones have made it possible for Moscow to terrorize Ukraine at any time of the day. And each time Russia fires at Kyiv, an air raid alarm is triggered and life in the capital stops. Many businesses and services, including some public transit operations, shut down, and everyone is meant to head to a shelter.

The Ukrainian capital is split in half by the Dnipro river. The right bank is home to the majority of Kyiv’s business centers, offices and government institutions, whereas the left bank is mostly residential.

The bridges connecting the two sides are crucial – some 600,000 vehicles cross them every day. And these vital links have become the most recent target for Russia.

Kyiv’s Southern Bridge, which serves ground transportation as well as the city’s subway system, was hit five times within two days on Thursday and Friday. The city’s Northern Bridge was hit twice on Saturday and Sunday. The disruption has forced Kyiv authorities to start work on creating a new pontoon bridge.

Russia’s shift toward this new strategy coincided with the start of a new school year in Ukraine – and children are among those hit hardest by the constant interruptions.

According to Kyiv authorities, roughly half of the city’s 250,000 children are attending schools in person full time, while most of the rest alternate between remote and in-person learning.

A handful of schools are operating fully online. Some schools have gone as far as moving all of their classes underground. Others spend precious learning time moving children to shelters.

The enormous risks of bringing children into classrooms were made clear on Thursday, when a Russian drone struck one of Kyiv’s schools while more than 100 children were inside.

The school’s headteacher, Olena Chorna, said an earlier air raid alert had only just ended when the sirens started blaring again. “We all hurried down to the shelter and stayed there … 104 children were in the shelter. We could hear things being destroyed; the school was filled with smoke, but in the shelter all the doors were closed and we couldn’t feel a thing.” No one was injured but extensive damage was caused to the building.

But with alerts now much more common, many find it hard to keep following the official guidance.

“I can’t stay in shelters all the time, because I have to keep living, keep studying,” university student Sophia Zaremba told CNN.

Zaremba, who is 20, said the day-to-day reality of living under fire was catching up with her. She witnessed a Russian drone strike next to her university building the day before speaking to CNN.

She knew an air raid alert was in place, but she had urgent errands to take care of, she explained.

“It was unexpected. You get used to the fact that drones are flying around and that there are various places nearby where they might hit… but this was loud, and it caught us off guard,” she said.

She told CNN that all she could think of in the moment was that another explosion might be imminent. “I just thought the alarm was still going off and, God forbid, the next strike might be nearby.”

All her remaining sense of security has been shattered, she added. “I haven’t been able to get out of bed for half the day today because I just don’t have the mental strength to do anything.”

Russia’s current weapon of choice against Kyiv is its new wave of jet-powered drones, known as the Geran-4 and Geran-5. These killer machines resemble tiny cruise missiles, flying at speeds of up to 600 kilometers per hour (310 miles per hour) and often carrying powerful warheads.

They often travel too fast and too high for Kyiv’s mobile fire groups to shoot down, so ground-to-air missiles, fighter jets or interceptors must be deployed – all of which are in extremely limited supply in Ukraine.

At the same time, these drones cost as little as one-tenth as much as a traditional cruise missile to produce than traditional cruise missiles, which means Russia can afford to launch dozens of them at the same time.

According to Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched 2,850 jet-powered drones in August and 3,177 in September.

Masha Yivzhenko was killed when her office building in central Kyiv was hit by a Geran-5 drone on September 25. According to Serhii Beskrestnov, an adviser to Zelensky, another jet-powered drone was circling the site of the strike at high altitude, providing a radio signal for the device.

Once the building was struck, the second drone flew off to attack a McDonald’s warehouse in the suburbs of Kyiv, Beskrestnov said.

Yivzhenko told CNN that one of the things he loved most about Masha was the fact the two of them — both former journalists – always had something interesting to talk about. “She was my best friend and my whole life was built around the fact that we had each other,” he said.

When Yivzhenko enlisted in 2024, after working as a volunteer medic since the beginning of the war, the couple got a dog, Jessie, so that Masha wouldn’t be completely alone.

They took out a mortgage to buy an apartment and were planning their future, despite the war. “We bought Masha a car because we were planning to have children,” he said.

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Yivzhenko was in Kyiv for a few days last week. On the day of the attack, he drove Masha to her office to pick up her laptop so she could work from home. She popped in for a few minutes and he walked Jessie while waiting for her to come back.

And then the drone struck. First responders at the scene told Yivzhenko that his wife had died on impact. Her body was found under the stairs on the first floor of the office building.

“She didn’t burn, she didn’t bleed to death. She died instantly. The blast wave threw her down from the fifth floor,” he told CNN.

“I identified her, and they let me go. I have buried my brothers-in-arms and I am mentally prepared for the fact that I will bury my parents when they get old. And all of that is normal. That is life. But by killing Masha, they killed me.”

玛莎原本不该身处战场。她的丈夫丹尼洛·伊夫任科是家里的军人。作为乌克兰第三独立突击旅的一名战斗医护兵，他明知风险，却依然毅然奔赴战场。玛莎则是一名平民，留在基辅的家中，时刻担忧着前线的丈夫。

但 9 月 25 日，一架威力强大的无人机袭击了位于乌克兰首都的玛莎的办公楼，导致 29 岁的玛莎不幸遇难。

伊夫任科无法理解这种不公。“我是一名军人，我正在与俄罗斯作战。如果俄罗斯的无人机、弹道导弹或其他任何东西杀死了我——那很公平。我们杀俄罗斯人，俄罗斯人也杀我们。我们是军人；我们明白自己在做什么，”他告诉CNN。

“杀害士兵固然可怕，但却司空见惯。但玛莎只是个平民。她没有组装无人机，没有碰过武器，也没有穿军装。她只是一个生活在平民城市的平民，那天她只是在做着自己的日常工作。”

8月27日，基辅的日常生活戛然而止，俄罗斯开始对这座城市进行近乎不间断的空袭。自那时起，基辅几乎每天都会接到空袭警报。平均每天发布七次空袭警报，有时甚至高达十三次。

由于缺乏足够的防空武器来击落俄罗斯的导弹和最新型喷气式无人机，乌克兰军队越来越无力保卫基辅免受这些袭击。

乌克兰总统泽连斯基一直在恳求盟友提供帮助，乌克兰军方也在加紧研发有效的拦截器——但这些努力都还没有带来实质性的改变。

短短一个多月的时间里（从 8 月 27 日到 10 月 4 日），基辅及周边地区至少有 98 人丧生，435 人受伤，这一数字远高于前几个月。

在此期间，首都中心地带的几座著名建筑遭到俄罗斯无人机袭击，其中包括乌克兰安全局总部、国家科学院、最高司法委员会以及一家电视和互联网供应商的数据中心。

尽管有大量证据表明平民目标经常遭到袭击，但俄罗斯一直声称其只打击军事目标。

为了最大限度地降低基辅拦截的可能性，俄罗斯过去常常在夜间趁着夜色发动空袭。这意味着人们在防空洞里熬过一夜不眠后往往精疲力竭，但白天他们的生活基本可以照常进行。

但俄罗斯最新型的喷气式无人机使莫斯科能够随时对乌克兰发动袭击。每次俄罗斯向基辅开火，都会触发空袭警报，首都的生活陷入停滞。许多企业和服务机构，包括部分公共交通，都会关闭，所有人都被要求前往避难所。

第聂伯河将乌克兰首都基辅一分为二。右岸集中了基辅的大部分商业中心、办公楼和政府机构，而左岸则以住宅区为主。

连接两国的桥梁至关重要——每天约有60万辆汽车通过。而这些重要的交通要道已成为俄罗斯最新的攻击目标。

基辅南桥是地面交通和地铁系统的枢纽，周四和周五两天内遭到五次撞击。北桥在周六和周日也遭到两次撞击。交通中断迫使基辅当局开始建造一座新的浮桥。

俄罗斯转向这一新战略恰逢乌克兰新学年开始——而儿童是受不断中断影响最严重的群体之一。

据基辅当局称，该市 25 万名儿童中约有一半全时到校上课，其余大部分儿童则在远程学习和到校学习之间交替进行。

少数学校完全转为线上授课。一些学校甚至将所有课程转移到了地下。还有一些学校则花费宝贵的学习时间将孩子们转移到避难所。

周四，一架俄罗斯无人机袭击了基辅的一所学校，当时有 100 多名儿童在校内，这清楚地表明了将儿童带入教室的巨大风险。

学校校长奥莱娜·乔纳说，早前的一次空袭警报刚结束，警报声就再次响起。“我们都赶紧跑到防空洞里躲了起来……104个孩子都在防空洞里。我们能听到东西被摧毁的声音；学校里到处都是烟雾，但防空洞里的门都关着，我们什么感觉都没有。” 没有人受伤，但建筑物遭到严重破坏。

但由于警报现在更加频繁，许多人发现很难继续遵循官方指导。

“我不能一直待在收容所里，因为我还要继续生活，继续学习，”大学生索菲亚·扎伦巴告诉 CNN。

20岁的扎伦巴说，生活在战火下的日常生活让她不堪重负。就在她接受CNN采访的前一天，她亲眼目睹了俄罗斯无人机在她大学教学楼附近发动袭击。

她解释说，她知道当时有空袭警报，但她有紧急的事情要办。

“这完全出乎意料。你会习惯无人机在周围飞行，也会习惯附近有很多地方可能会被它们撞到……但这次的声音很大，让我们措手不及，”她说。

她告诉CNN，当时她满脑子想的都是可能即将发生另一次爆炸。“我当时就觉得警报还在响，天哪，下一次袭击可能就在附近。”

她补充说，她仅存的安全感也彻底崩溃了。“今天我有一半时间都起不了床，因为我根本没有精力去做任何事。”

俄罗斯目前对基辅的主要武器是其新一代喷气式无人机，即格朗-4和格朗-5。这些杀手机器形似小型巡航导弹，飞行速度高达每小时600公里（每小时310英里），并且通常携带威力强大的弹头。

它们飞行速度往往太快、高度也太高，基辅的机动火力小组无法将其击落，因此必须部署地对空导弹、战斗机或拦截机——而所有这些在乌克兰的供应都极其有限。

与此同时，这些无人机的生产成本仅为传统巡航导弹的十分之一，这意味着俄罗斯可以同时发射数十架无人机。

据乌克兰空军发言人尤里·伊格纳特称，俄罗斯在8月份发射了2850架喷气式无人机，9月份发射了3177架。

9月25日，基辅市中心的办公楼遭到“格朗-5”无人机袭击，玛莎·伊夫任科不幸遇难。据泽连斯基的顾问谢尔盖·别斯克列斯特诺夫称，另一架喷气式无人机在袭击地点高空盘旋，为该装置提供无线电信号。

别斯克列斯特诺夫说，建筑物遭到袭击后，第二架无人机飞去袭击了基辅郊区的一家麦当劳仓库。

伊夫任科告诉CNN，他最爱玛莎的一点是，他们俩——都是前记者——总有有趣的话题可聊。“她是我最好的朋友，我们彼此相伴，我的生活也因此而更加完整，”他说。

2024 年，伊夫任科应征入伍，此前他从战争开始就一直担任志愿医护人员。为了让玛莎不至于完全孤单，这对夫妇养了一条狗，取名杰西。

尽管战乱不断，他们还是贷款买了一套公寓，并开始规划未来。“我们给玛莎买了辆车，因为我们打算要孩子，”他说。

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伊夫任科上周在基辅待了几天。袭击当天，他开车送玛莎去她办公室取笔记本电脑，以便她可以在家办公。玛莎进去待了几分钟，伊夫任科就带着杰西出去散步，等她回来。

随后无人机发动了攻击。现场救援人员告诉伊夫任科，他的妻子当场死亡。她的遗体在办公楼一楼的楼梯下被发现。

“她没有被烧死，也没有流血而死。她当场死亡。爆炸冲击波把她从五楼掀了下来，”他告诉CNN。

“我认出了她，他们就放了我。我埋葬了我的战友，我也做好了心理准备，将来父母老了我也会埋葬他们。这一切都很正常，这就是生活。但是，他们杀了玛莎，就等于杀了我。”