The shattered kitchen clock still showed the moment when the first Russian missile vaporized the courtyard of a Soviet-era skyscraper overlooking Ukraine’s southern front.

The second S-300 blew in a minute later at 1:44. Gennadiy Gerulo had already fallen out of bed by this point and realized that much of his old way of life was gone.

Staring out his shattered kitchen window a few hours later, the chubby engineer saw the strikes against his riverside port of Mykolaiv as a sign that victory was near.

“He’s like a jealous lover,” the 50-year-old said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“He says if he can’t have Ukraine, nobody can.”

Southern Ukrainian cities like Mykolayiv will play a crucial role in the next phase of the grueling war that Putin launched exactly eight months ago.

A murderous Ukrainian counter-offensive that drove the Russians out of conquered areas in the industrial north has reached the agricultural south.

And cities like Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rig, about a three-hour drive to the northeast, offer the Ukrainians two bases from which to launch their next attack.

The last wave of rockets injured four people and confirmed Svetlana Tishevska’s belief that Ukraine is on the right track.

Kremlin-appointed leaders are already evacuating the nearby city of Kherson — the only regional capital the Russians managed to control throughout the war.

A Ukrainian victory there would cut off the land bridge built by the Kremlin from Russia to the Crimea peninsula, which was conquered in 2014.

It would also return vital access to the Sea of ??Azov and leave Putin little to show for a campaign that has turned him into an international outcast.

Tishevska voiced much the same thoughts as Gerulo as she cleared debris from her stairwell a few floors down.

“He’s like a wounded animal,” she said of Putin.

“He destroys himself and wants to take others with him.”

The load-bearing wall of Tishevska’s residential tower had cracked, and the facade of a smaller building on the opposite side of the yard had partially collapsed.

Few residents expected to live in either building again.

“I understand that victory is near,” said the 50-year-old amid the devastation.

The swath of destruction left in its wake by Putin’s retreating forces is generating hostility towards Moscow in places where many prefer to speak Russian and have family across the border.

Russian-speaking Gerulo said he felt “nothing but hatred, pure hatred, for these people who call themselves our brothers.”

The overwhelming majority of attacks hit Mykolaiv and surrounding towns after midnight or when people first wake up and set off.

The timing confuses many. Some believe Russia is trying to demoralize Ukrainians by depriving them of sleep.

“The Russians want to wear us down and cause unrest. They want us to force our government to give up,” Gerulo said.

“You don’t know any other way.”

Mykolaiv became Putin’s target in the first weeks of the invasion.

The Russians made great strides, targeting the neighboring Black Sea port of Odessa — a cultural capital Putin mentioned when he first went to war.

Mykolaiv suffers for a second time as Putin’s troops retreat.

Academic and part-time worker Lyudmila Falko sounded almost cheerful as she searched the remains of her daughter’s destroyed apartment.

“These suicide drones and missiles, these are his last acts,” said the slight 60-year-old with a firm nod.

“Children are dying, old people are dying because he is scared to death.”

But that bravery — both passionate and shared by many — is tinged with a nagging fear that wells up without warning in the middle of conversations.

“I’ve been scared since the first day of the war,” Gerulo said, still staring out his kitchen window.

“To be honest, I still don’t quite understand what’s going on.”