KYIV, Ukraine — There’s no mistaking the rumble and blinding flash of an airstrike when it explodes in the still, early morning hours. I learned that the hard way on Thursday, when a series of three or four Russian cruise missiles attacked a military airfield just 2,000 feet from where I was struggling to sleep in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.
With more than 150,000 of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s troops surrounding Ukraine and threatening to invade at any moment, it seemed like 40 million Ukrainians, as well as the dozens of foreign journalists staying at my three-star hotel, were scared sleepless.
At 4:36 a.m. Kyiv time, I received a text from Alexander Vindman, the retired US Army lieutenant colonel who was the director for European Affairs for the National Security Council. He asked, “You OK?”
“Yeah. Quiet here in Kramatorsk,” I replied, fully dressed and lying on my bed.
“Glad that’s the case. As an infantryman, we sleep when we can,” Vindman said. “Get rest. I fear you’ll need it.”
But I couldn’t switch off. And perhaps it’s good that I didn’t, as the missiles came crashing down just 16 minutes later. The blasts shook the walls, illuminated my room even through thick curtains, and jolted me up. A moment later, I was in the hallway, where two journalists came stumbling out of their rooms in their underwear, asking me if we should all make a dash for the bomb shelter.
