A night of drones and explosions

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NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 30th of December.

This is WORLD Radio and we’re glad to have you along today. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

SOUND: [SHAHID DRONES]

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, things had gotten relatively quiet in Kyiv. But many were holding their breath…waiting for a Christmas attack by Russia. Early Saturday morning, Telegram channels lit up with warnings as more than four hundred drones and missiles were on their way.

EICHER: WORLD’s Caleb Welde spent Christmas in Kyiv and he recorded the sound of these shahid drones from his hotel room. Caleb is here now to talk to us about what it was like, good morning Caleb.

CALEB WELDE: Good morning.

REICHARD: Tell us a little about the lead up to this latest attack. It wasn’t really a surprise was it?

WELDE: No, it wasn't. A number of people in Kyiv said, “don't be fooled. It's been too quiet lately. Russia is stockpiling to overwhelm the air defense systems in Kyiv.”

EICHER: Caleb, take a moment and describe for us the beginning of the Saturday morning attack. Surprise or not…

WELDE: So we got word on Telegram channels late Friday night that something was coming. And by early, about 12:30am in the morning, Saturday morning—and I'll just read this message on a telegram channel—and it says, “considering the number of ships at sea and bombers in the air, as well as ballistics and Daggers, that would be Dagger missiles, today could be the most massive shelling this year.” So that was before any explosion. Then around 1:30 I counted 15 or 20 explosions, shook the building, shook the windows. Then it was quiet. For about an hour, I fell back asleep, and then around three in the morning, I woke up again, and could see on the Telegram channels, there was a radar image of a string of drones stretching from Kyiv almost to the Black Sea. At one point that morning, they said, you know, be ready. We think 80 drones will arrive in the city in the next 20 minutes. You know, opening the window, I could hear, hear them approaching, hear them leaving, and then, and then the anti-aircraft fire trying to shoot them down—more or less for hours and hours—there were explosions every 30 seconds or so. You know, varying distances for me over the city.

EICHER: And how did the people around you react?

WELDE: I'm in a pretty small hotel. I don't know how many people are staying here, but when I went downstairs, there's no underground where I'm at, but in the eating area, there was one couple that had kind of laid down in the booth and looked like they had decided to camp out there for the night. A few hours later, I was sitting in a hallway watching the videos come in of the attacks throughout the city, and I could hear a woman in the room across me crying. And I don't know what was going on—if she was watching the same videos I was—but it was, it was video after video of drones flying into apartment buildings and based on the lighting of the videos, I could tell they were just, you know, five or 10 minutes ago,

REICHARD: I’m curious. This war has been going on for years now. Would you say that this kind of thing has become almost routine, so life just goes on?

WELDE: Yeah, I'm sorry to say that it does seem like it's routine here. Everyone has alerts on their phone when there's an air raid going on, but that can be, you know, a ballistic missile has been launched that could hit a large area. And so people really do seem to check the telegram channels, but, I mean, even during the attack, I remember looking out the window and there was a man taking his trash out to the dumpster. You know, I think there's really a range. A woman in a nearby coffee shop told me she sleeps in the bathroom on nights like that. But then a woman in a town 70 miles from the front line said 90% of people there just kind of ignore the alarms.

EICHER: Well, it's been a few days since the weekend attack. What's the mood in Kyiv right now?

WELDE: The mood in Kyiv is about like before the attacks. Some people at an English learning club I'm a part of here were saying, you know, “what's to celebrate?” They were not believers. But then on the other hand, just riding the metro through the city, you know, you see people carrying gifts and just continuing life. And there was, there was even a video, actually, again, while the attack was still going on, you know, at this point, there were only six drones over the city. A picture went out in the Telegram channels of a woman cleaning her windows. Holding herself to the side of the building and just cleaning her windows. And the caption said, for some in Kyiv, anxiety, for some, washing the windows. “We will not be broken.”

EICHER: How are people you're talking with looking at the potential peace process?

WELDE: Well, there's been a range of things that I've heard. They're not optimistic about it. First of all, as much as Trump and Zelenskyy and Europe talk, it doesn't seem like Russia is really making concessions. And everyone I've talked to has said that, you know, they believe, if Ukraine does give up the territory that Russia has taken, that it will not bring peace. That it will at best, pause the war for a few years and give Russia time to regroup. I've been surprised to hear basically everyone I've talked to has said that they really believe Russia is an existential threat to the country. And not only 100 percent wants to take over all of Ukraine, but probably more of Europe as well.

REICHARD: Caleb Welde is a freelance reporter for WORLD. Caleb, thanks for joining us and stay safe.

WELDE: Thank you. It's good to be with you.

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