I’ve covered the brutal realities of Ukraine’s war on its eastern front lines since the Russian invasion of 20227xm, but my home on the other side of the country remained largely untouched by violence.
In September, the conflict reached my family in an unexpected way.
Our car and the apartment we live in were hit by a Russian missile while I was away on assignment, and while my wife and daughter were visiting family elsewhere. Even though none of us were at home when the missile struck, it was a jarring reminder that there are no truly safe places in Ukraine.
For almost three years, war has split Ukraine into two realities. One is near the combat zones, where Russian ballistic missiles and guided bombs are an ever-present threat. The other is in places where life carries on relatively normally, with most of the trappings of peace — but with the ominous sense that this can change at any moment.
The events of September occurred as I straddled those two worlds.
I was in Poltava, a city of about 300,000 people in central Ukraine, on one of its darkest days since Russia’s invasion. On Sept. 3, two ballistic missiles struck a military academy there, killing 59 people and injuring over 270.
Among the survivors was a 25-year-old who gave his name only as Markiyan. Sitting on a curb near a rescue tent, where emergency workers handed out food and water, he looked shaken and confused. His clothes were dirty and his skin scratched — clear signs that he had narrowly escaped the deadly blast. “The first explosion threw me under the stairs. When I tried to get up and reach the shelter, the second blast hit,” he said, his voice catching.
ImageUkrainian firefighters and rescue workers at the site of a Russian ballistic missile attack of a military educational institution in Poltava in September.Credit...David Guttenfelder for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.
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