Borys Sachalko

After a Russian air strike in Kyiv, Mykola Yakimenko was trapped under rubble for hours before rescue workers freed him. As attacks on civilian sites continue with terrifying frequency, medics are offering safety advice meant to give Ukrainians the best odds of surviving a similar disaster.

Mykola Yakimenko was rescued from under fallen debris after a Russian missile hit his apartment building in Kyiv. The threat of collapsing buildings is so common in war-torn Ukraine that rescuers and medics now offer online advice for civilians caught in similar situations.

Current Time correspondent Borys Sachalko joined Ukrainian volunteers who are helping local residents evacuate the frontline area near Kupyansk, a key defensive position that is being heavily targeted by Russian forces. Many of the evacuation requests come from concerned relatives.

Ukrainian men seeking to avoid military service pay up to the equivalent of $15,000 to smuggling gangs that hire children as guides to get them across the border to Romania. It’s one of the phenomena contributing to persistent manpower problems as Kyiv fights against the Russian invasion.

The Ukrainian military is facing a manpower crisis, exacerbated by draft dodgers and deserters trying to leave the country. On the border with Romania, men trying to flee conscription pay smugglers to help them leave illegally, driving local guards to step up patrols using drones for surveillance.

Russia has targeted the electricity infrastructure across Ukraine, forcing authorities to impose regular power cuts. In Chernihiv, residents arrange their lives around the blackouts, cooking meals in advance, charging battery-powered lights, and cutting back on showers when the water supply is down.

Ukraine’s need to get people to the front to fight the Russian invasion is also creating a manpower problem in the rear, with labor shortages hitting many industries and some towns virtually empty of conscription-age men.

Ukrainian ground drone operators joke that they feel like big kids playing with remote-control cars -- but the job of driverless vehicles in keeping frontline troops functioning is no game.

As hundreds of Russian drone and missile attacks hit Ukraine on the night of April 15-16, Current Time correspondent Borys Sachalko narrowly avoided one of the strikes. He recorded a video from inside his shattered apartment building in Kyiv, where shrapnel had claimed the life of a young neighbor.

Russian forces are pressing closer to Kostyantynivka, one of Ukraine's remaining strongholds in the eastern Donetsk region, but forces defending the city say they're holding firm. One Ukrainian drone unit is battling Russian incursions, including soldiers traveling by horse to evade detection.