It started out much like any other weekday morning these days in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Throngs of pedestrians were busily making their way to work under a clear blue sky. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping… then suddenly the dreaded noise of a couple of Russian attack drones buzzing overhead.

No longer largely restricted to attacking at night, the Kremlin’s drone and missile salvos on cities far from the front line have become more brazen, terrorising civilians as they walk, drive or take cover wherever they can.

Kyiv at 9am usually involves patriotic citizens standing for a minute in silence to honour those who have sacrificed their lives for their country. People, some taking children to school, nervously looked over their shoulders as air defence troops blasted away to take down the Shahed craft.

Ominously, the wreckage of one such attack drone crashed at the foot of the iconic victory column in Independence Square, scorching the pavements as the debris landed.

Andriy, who works in an office nearby, said he heard the explosions and decided to flee the building for fear that it would be hit.

He added: “But as soon as I stepped out on to the street it was so loud that I ducked into another building for cover.”

Witnessing Independence Square being attacked again recalled for Andriy the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, when more than a hundred protesters were shot dead by police units. The atrocity led to Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine. He said: “There were Russian military in Kyiv killing Ukrainians then, too.”

Volodymyr Kaplin, a Soviet Union-era submariner who now sells military souvenirs on the square, saw the Russian drone come down just a stone’s throw from where he was standing.

He said: “They were shooting at it with everything they had but it kept swerving from side to side like a ship rocking on the waves.”

But once hit it dropped like a stone. He added: “I saw what looked like tiny white stars bursting around it before there was a boom and pieces rained down.”

Even as we spoke, the blare of sirens around the city started up once more and people took cover in the subways to try and avoid being hit by an incoming Russian ballistic missile.

No longer a monthly or even weekly outrage, these air attacks on large Ukrainians cities that can cause ­significant casualties are now occurring almost daily.

Just two days earlier a massive combined missile and drone assault on towns and villages north of the capital killed six people and wounded 20.

More than 400 unmanned aircraft and 50 missiles were used in the blitz, leaving a trail of fire and ruin in their deadly wake.