Valeria was about to take a bite of pizza when the Iskander landed nearby.

The blast from the Russian missile shattered all the windows in the Mykolaiv CHP (combined heat and power) plant in southern Ukraine, igniting a gas fire and propelling shrapnel through the canteen.

“I had imagined what I might do when a missile or a Shahed [drone] comes, like if it really happens to me, and I had told myself I should be really calm at that moment,” says the 27-year-old.

She and her twin sister Alyona led a hyperventilating colleague out of the plant’s office to her car. The trio were still driving away when the second Iskander hit, devastating the plant’s boiler-room.

After that Oct 10 strike, the plant was targeted again, in January, February and May, each time with Shahed drones.

On Thur

See Full Page