On the night of 2 June, Ukraine came under a massive, coordinated attack.
Cities including Kyiv, Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Lubny, Poltava region and Kharkiv were struck as 73 missiles and 656 drones were launched. Many of these weapons are extremely difficult to intercept. Within the first ten minutes alone, 23 ballistic missiles hit four cities simultaneously, leaving people almost no time to reach safety.
Inside homes, shelters and metro stations, people waited.
The following messages were exchanged in a Caritas Ukraine night-time working chat, as the attack unfolded.
“We were freezing in the shelter and have now gone back up to our 14th floor. Wherever you look, there is smoke,”
“Something just hit very close. For the first time, I felt the building shaking,”
By morning, the scale of the damage was becoming clear.
At least 21 people were killed, including two children and a rescue worker, and more than 135 people were injured. Homes, medical facilities and civilian infrastructure were damaged. In Kyiv alone, a record 41,000 people took shelter in the metro, representing one in every 80 to 90 residents of the capital.
These were not military targets. They were civilian cities.
The very next day, students sat their exams.
As emergency services began clearing rubble and families emerged from another sleepless night, a different reality was unfolding across Ukraine.
Teenagers were sitting their main university entrance exam. Four hours. Four subjects to focus on. Just one day after explosions, sirens and sheltering in a metro overnight.
This is what war looks like for young people in Ukraine. Their education continues, but not in classrooms untouched by conflict. It continues in the aftermath of attacks, shaped by exhaustion, fear and uncertainty about what comes next.
Ukrainian youth are not military targets. Yet their futures are being tested under the weight of war.
What is the aftermath of an attack?
For many families, the hours after an attack are not a return to normal. They are a continuation of survival. One Caritas Ukraine staff member described the experience of moving through the day after the strikes:
“My husband and I, after the horrific night, are driving to the hospital for a follow-up after his surgery… Traffic jams on the way due to shelling. Smoke.”
“And it feels like I can finally breathe out, but the realisation of the exhaustion from the war and the necessity to keep living despite it all paralyses me.”
“Getting the child ready for daycare… the teacher, exhausted from a sleepless night, rides… because the children are waiting.”
“On the way, I keep thinking about what phoenixes we are.”
This is the reality across Ukraine. Life is continuing under pressure that no family should have to endure.
Urgent humanitarian need
The ongoing bombardment continues to create urgent humanitarian needs across Ukraine, affecting families, children and entire communities.
Homes are damaged or destroyed. Essential services are disrupted. Psychological strain builds with every night spent in shelters and every day spent recovering.
This is now a prolonged crisis, and yet, as the war continues, international attention risks fading.
How Caritas Australia is responding
Through local partners on the ground, including Caritas Ukraine, support includes:
Emergency shelter for displaced families
Food and humanitarian assistance
Healthcare and psychosocial support
Help for families to rebuild their lives
Support to maintain access to education and essential services
This work continues even as local teams experience the same attacks, outages and risks as the communities they serve.
As attacks continue, so do the needs of the people affected by them. Please stand in solidarity with Ukrainian families and ensure they are not forgotten.
