All over Ukraine, the night is darker. It often brings the worst of Russian attacks

The darkness and quiet in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, spreads eerily — making it look, in some areas, like a ghost town. It's not a matter of mood: all over Ukraine, the night is darker. Satellite images show a significant dimming of the lights at night, as the cities turn off streetlights to make Russia's job harder, as Ukraine's power plants are destroyed in Russian attacks and as people simply leave for other parts of Ukraine, Europe — or anywhere else that's safer.

Russian attacks on Ukraine often come at night — drones, missiles, artillery. In many instances over more than three years of war, people have been asleep, or trying to sleep, in their homes when acts of war shattered the night.

Hanna, Arkadii and their two-year-old daughter Leya were woken before 7 a.m. in January 2024 by a strike in their neighborhood. Minutes later, another strike hit the building next door. The shockwaves and shrapnel shattered glass into their own apartment.

In the nights immediately after the attack, "We couldn't sleep at all. Sleeping for like 10 minutes at a time. After the hit initially, for the first three days, we hadn't slept at all," says Hanna.

"If before war we had what can be called full sleep, now it's necessary sleep. Our brain takes as much as it needs to keep being alive," says psychologist Yuliia Krat who works with East SOS, a nonprofit that assists people affected by the war.