KYIV — The air alert ends at 8.15am with an explosion in the distance, allowing Anastasiia Zhmutska to finally take her 14-year-old son Orest to school in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

Anastasiia, 44, is a busy mother with three children, a job at a hospital and little time for herself. Since the end of summer, Russia has “added a few extra tasks”, she said with a mischievous glint that barely conceals her fatigue.

Air raid alerts and explosions shatter her nights and set the rhythm of her days, as Russia steps up drone attacks that have killed more than 190 people in Kyiv since January.

Whether it’s the school run or keeping an eye on Orest’s 19-year-old brother, her timetable is organised depending on the risk of strikes.

The previous evening, she took her five-year-old daughter to safety at a second home with her father, far away from the attacks.

At school, she looks into her bag containing two battery power packs that she will recharge at work, where the electricity supply is uninterrupted.

After supermarkets and petrol stations, Russia is again attacking the power network, which has led to outages.

“It’s becoming more complicated,” Anastasiia told AFP. “But it still has to be dealt with.”

When the power comes back on in her flat, she quickly runs to put on a load of washing. For everything else, she uses a string of Christmas lights for illumination.

“There’s always a way out of any everyday situation,” she added. “At the very least, I’ve managed to find a way out over the past five years.”