Kateryna Starozhuk installed a Life Capsule steel safety box in her house in Bucha to feel safer during Russia's frequent attacks on the Kyiv area.Olga Ivashchenko/The Globe and Mail
For much of the summer, Kyiv has been the focus of almost nightly Russian drone and rocket attacks. On July 31, between 28 and 31 people were killed in one attack when a building collapsed after an air raid, with as many as 159 injured.
Since the White House talks last Friday, Russia has intensified its air assaults, hitting Ukraine with 1,000 long-range drones and missiles.
While some residents head into basements or underground for protection, others are taking a different approach.
Kateryna Starozhuk, 30, lives in a house on the outskirts of Kyiv, in Bucha. She says she doesn’t have a place to hide while drones fly toward the capital: “I don’t have a basement, and to build one costs a lot of money.”
Instead, she bought a Life Capsule – a two-metre-tall steel safety box designed to protect against blast waves, bomb fragments and falling debris.
This building collapsed during a Russian attack on Kyiv on July 31.Efrem Lukatsky/The Associated Press
“Last year, when attacks started increasing, I was not able to sleep. I started to gain weight, lose concentration and even started to forget words. It was not possible to work effectively at all,” Ms. Starozhuk says.
She placed the capsule in one of her rooms, next to an exercise bike. With this temporary shelter in place, she became less afraid when drones were flying above her house. “When I hear the air defence, I am running into my capsule where I can feel much safer.”
“Even last week, one drone fell 200 metres away from my home. Mentally, it’s very difficult to cope with it, and I don’t know how I would be able to survive through the night if I don’t have a safety box.”
Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, Russia has launched more and more drones against Ukraine. In July, it fired 6,129 drones against Ukrainian cities, compared with 423 in the same month last year.
Earlier this week, Mr. Trump pledged security guarantees to help end the war during a White House summit that included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders. He has since ruled out putting U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine, but said the United States might provide air support as part of a deal to end the conflict.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States would not put troops on the ground in Ukraine but might provide air support as part of a deal to end Russia's war in the country.
Reuters
As the number of attacks has increased, there is an increased market demand for the Life Capsule. The need will continue, warns Sehrii Zakharin, inventor of the metal box, who does not believe there will be a peace agreement as a result of the Trump-Putin negotiations.
The capsule was created primarily for private houses, Mr. Zakharin says. It is constructed with a thickness of five millimetres of steel and has been tested for its ability to withstand an explosion by dropping an 1,100-kilogram concrete slab onto it from a height of 10 metres.
The inventor says the capsule can’t currently protect from a direct drone hit, but he is working on a new model with that aim in mind. The capsules are used not only in the Kyiv region, but all around the country, Mr. Zakharin says.
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The price for one capsule is around US$2,000. Mr. Zakharin says he understands that not everyone can afford it. Ms. Starozhuk says she also thought it was expensive until the latest drone attack.
“When you are in real danger, you are looking for any option to be safe, but sometimes it’s too late. I have a lot of friends in Kyiv who are trying to sleep on the upper floors, but I can’t do it even on the zero floor, because I am afraid,” Ms. Starozhuk adds.
Ms. Starozhuk said she sleeps better knowing she has a safe room.Olga Ivashchenko/The Globe and Mail
She says that she wants to continue living in Ukraine. For this, she needs to feel protected, and the capsule is one element that helps her feel safer and allows her to sleep. But she is also not optimistic about the war ending.
“Based on how weak our American and European partners are, I don’t have much hope for that. My hope is on the Ukrainian Armed Forces, to whom I regularly send donations.”
Ms. Starozhuk hopes that one day she will be able to sleep again in her bed and won’t need to monitor the phone, which detects the drones while she is hiding in her safety box. But at the moment, it’s her solution for better mental health.
With a report from Reuters and The Associated Press