The deep subway tunnels of the Lukyanivska metro station in central Kyiv make an ideal air raid shelter — which is just as well as the station lies across the street from the Artem weapons factory and was damaged when Russia targeted the area in one of its biggest air strikes of the war.

Ukraine has had a tough start to 2024. The country is exhausted after two years of fighting, the temperature in Kyiv has dropped to -14C and the ground offensive, having failed to recapture significant swaths of occupied territory, is all but frozen.

Meanwhile, Russian air attacks — supplemented with Iranian drones and, according to the US, North Korean ballistic missiles too — have heated up. The second big strike came on Monday, when Russia launched 59 drones and missiles and Ukraine’s air defences shot down less than half of them, compared with their usual 80 per cent interception rates.