The War Comes to Us in Izmail, Ukraine

.....The first drones hit at about 0245 this morning: two blasts shook the insulated windows. I heard footsteps and people shouting in the apartment building. When the second wave came, you could hear the whir of motors and propeller blades, and then AK-47s opened up as soldiers and security tried to hit them in the sky. The third wave was most unnerving as the drones sounded almost on top of us, until the guns, and then the explosions. On my cell, I noticed an earlier message from one of my sons, Jake, "Stay Safe," he wrote and I replied (see below). On the fourth wave, I was in a bunker; the double boom was muffled. This morning, I walked the street. The building gutted by fire was two blocks away.

Ukraine does not allow photos to be taken of damage done by the war without documentation as a photographer. My screenshots of text messages are below. A cloud of black smoke has been coming all morning from a place in the port about a mile away.

So many times, I said we were free, here in Izmail from the effects of the war, because of our proximity to Romania. That's no longer true.

Grace and Peace,

Robert Gamble