By Stuart Ramsay, chief correspondent

This attack on a residential building in Sumy killing and injuring adults and children as they slept is not the first of its kind, and it almost certainly won’t be the last in this war that’s now nearly 1,000 days long.

We have been in and out of Sumy for the past 10 days, and the sounds of air raid sirens combined with the booming noise of artillery and the rattle of air defence systems attempting to bring down Russian drones, are a constant.

When we spent time with the soldiers who man the air defence batteries, they told us they have very little time to shoot down missiles streaking above them in the skies.

Sumy borders the Russian region of Kursk, part of which Ukrainian troops invaded in the summer and have held ever since. There are indicators that Russia, with North Korean military assistance, is preparing a counteroffensive there, and attacks on Sumy itself have increased in recent weeks.

Sumy’s location, so close to the border, means that civilians have very little time to find cover when the air raid sirens blare. Depending on the type of missile Russia fires, they have minutes, sometimes just seconds, to seek shelter. 

Despite its proximity to the battlefield, Sumy still more or less operates as normal. It’s still populated, shops and restaurants are still functioning, and you can see families out and about in the day.

We noticed though that after 9pm, the city falls into a kind of darkness as people turn off lights and draw their curtains in their houses and apartment blocks, to limit the city’s visibility to any drones that may be flying above.

Last night’s attack illustrates just how much danger people in the northeast are in. And it’s worth remembering that Russia’s latest series of missile strikes on Ukraine targeted the entire country.