‘It looks like Chornobyl’: peril of living in Kyiv’s most bombed neighbourhood

Residents in area around Lukianivska Square say situation is only getting worse after repeated Russian attacks

On Lukianivska Square, in Kyiv’s most bombed neighbourhood, the white letters on a busy McDonald’s have melted from a fire that engulfed a nearby shopping centre during the last major attack, on 24 May.

Inside, however, the restaurant is busy – until an air raid alarm goes off, sending staff and customers down the escalators of the metro next door to shelter deep underground. The last strike collapsed a section of the metro’s ceiling and filled the platforms with a fog of dust.