POLTAVA OBLAST, Ukraine — Across the world, an English teacher from Knoxville starts his day by looking out the window and watching for planes.
Terrance McKracken said his city of Poltava, around 200 miles from Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, has been lucky so far in the war. He said it has not been damaged, and the threats they saw in the early days of the invasion did not lead to devastation.
Terrance has been providing first-hand reports of what he's experienced so far in Poltava amid the ongoing invasion:
March 21, 2022
“We haven’t had any attacks yet in Poltava, and many people feel safe.”
Underneath a cathedral of Poltava, Terrance reported a handful of people sought shelter after air raid sirens went off. Despite the sirens, a sense of calm remains in the city, he said.
In his update, he spoke with a journalist and volunteer worker for "Battalion of the Caring" -- a charitable organization in the city.
"Many, many people don’t do it. They think they are lucky,” the man said.
Terrance said he noticed shelters are not well marked, saying he does not believe people would know readily where to go if they needed to take cover. He said the shelters are listed online, though.
Terrance said people "simply went about their business on the street" as the sirens went off.
March 19, 2022
"I am in my apartment, as we still have martial law."
A curfew was extended in the city of Poltava into 8 p.m., Terrance said.
That day, Terrance said he felt there was less danger to the city than in the past.
Terrance turned his camera to the neighboring apartment -- which was mostly dark with a few windows lit. He said normally there'd be around 400 or more people in the apartments -- but said the war had prompted many of his neighbors to flee.
"85% of those apartments are not occupied. People have left. People have left Ukraine, or they've left the city to go to other cities in Ukraine," he said. "There are over 3 million refugees that are external refugees who have left the city. And there are about 10 million people who have left their cities who are internal refugees. That's about one-third of the population in Ukraine right now."
Terrance said the usual air alerts sounded in the city but said one alert was a bit different.
"'Danger, possibility of a rocket attack,' which they've not had before," he said. "Before I went to the window I heard three explosions, and I thought, 'They've found Poltava.' What I didn't think about was an article that there'd be military training today and that there'd be explosions," he said.
Terrance said he believes the explosions he heard were "coincidental" with the rocket attack message, saying the local military was exploding ordinance in their training.
"That was a great relief to know that my city is still safe."
March 18, 2022
"The two times our city was actually threatened by planes and by aircraft, the territorial defense was able to shoot them down, and that was actually towards the beginning of the war 2 weeks ago," he said. "Every day is sort of like this."
He said air raid sirens can normally be heard during the days, ringing across buildings and through alleys to warn people about the possibility of danger.
At around 7:30 a.m. on Friday, he said an air raid alert was heard in Poltava. Usually, he said he looks and listens for Ukrainian planes. But this time, since the air raid alarm had gone off, he said he also was listening for explosions.
"It's not unusual to have these air raid sirens. We have them a couple of times per day," he said.
He said he has felt safe in his city, but said he is prepared to run to a bomb shelter if he needs to.
"Today is a bright sunny day, and once you get past the air raid alerts, life is okay here," he said.
He previously spoke with WBIR in the early days of the war, in late February. He said military jets flew low over the city, and he saw a pool of black smoke rise later from near the city.