Dispatch from Ukraine: ‘Even the talk about nuclear weapons isn’t that scary. After Bucha and Mariupol nothing from Russia could surprise us’

This week, Ukrainian sports journalist Oleksandr Proshuta is worried about the threat of attacks on his native city of Zaporizhzhya and other urban centres, but says there is a growing optimism due to the help from the US and Nato

A woman walks past a damaged building in Kyiv on April 29: The mood in the city is one of accepting that this isn’t over, that it’s not even close to being over, but that the people want to get back to normal life. Picture: AFP via Getty

On Monday, I got a message from my mother. Attacks had started in Zaporizhzhya, my native city. My parents could hear explosions, they didn’t know what was going on, but it was scary stuff. The region is one of the biggest in Ukraine and the city isn’t all that important strategically in terms of the war. Dnipro for example is much more important and it is 70km from Zaporizhzhya.

I am reading the reports carefully ...