Air-raid warnings were in effect for record 30.8% of shopping centre opening hours in September

Air-raid warnings were in effect during a record 30.8% of shopping centre opening hours in September.

Source: Ukrainian Council of Shopping Centres (UCSC)

Details: The figure stood at 14.1% in 2025 and rose to 22% in August 2026. All three of the indicators monitored – the number of air-raid warnings, number of warnings issued during shopping centre opening hours, and total duration – increased over the past month.

Yellow-level alerts accounted for 60.9% of the total duration of warnings in September, compared with 39.1% for red-level alerts. [In Ukraine's air-raid warning system, yellow alerts indicate a drone threat and red alerts a missile threat – ed.]

The UCSC defines shopping centre opening hours as 10:00-21:00. The top five regions where air-raid warnings lasted the longest during this period have remained unchanged: Donetsk Oblast (92.2%), Zaporizhzhia Oblast (76.1%), Sumy Oblast (73.4%), Chernihiv Oblast (69.1%) and Kharkiv Oblast (58.0%).

Across these five regions, the share of air-raid alerts issued during shopping centre opening hours has increased by an average of 7%. "This is noticeable, but not critical," the UCSC said.

However, the figure has risen several-fold in Cherkasy, Kirovohrad and Zhytomyr oblasts, where it now stands at a high level. Kyiv has also recorded a significant increase, from 11.6% to 32.7%.

"In terms of the number of shopping centres in the capital and the quality of their tenants, this has become a real challenge for the industry," the UCSC said.

On average, air-raid alerts have forced shopping centres across Ukraine to close for 176.5 working days since the full-scale invasion began, including 9.6 working days in September.

Background: In the last week of August, air-raid warnings were in effect for 30.1% of Kyiv shopping centres' opening hours, up from around 3% in the preceding weeks of the summer.

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