State Emergency Service on rescue of young man pulled from rubble in Ternopil

Emergency workers in Ternopil have pulled a 20-year-old man, Bohdan, alive from beneath the rubble of a multi-storey residential building destroyed by a Russian strike.

Source: State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES)

Details: According to Denys Karpenko, a member of the SES Rapid Response Mobile Rescue Centre, emergency workers used a turntable ladder to reach the eighth floor of the building. During a "minute of silence", SES workers heard the voice of a person under the debris calling for help.

"We located where the voice was coming from, established contact with the person and began clearing the rubble. We kept speaking to him constantly because he was very nervous and shouting.

I tried to calm him down and told him: 'Don't panic, don't waste your strength – there's a lot of debris above you that we need to clear. Be patient, we will definitely rescue you,'" Karpenko said.

Six rescue workers worked to free Bohdan. The young man survived by a miracle. They found him in the kitchen area near the fridge.

"He was pinned down by a kitchen chair and lying in a foetal position, his arms in front of him. There was very little space for him to breathe. His right arm had been crushed by the chair. We applied a tourniquet and continued the rescue," the first responder added.

Bohdan's sister, Mariana, said that at the moment of the strike he had been inside the family's flat on the eighth floor – now completely destroyed.

The injured man is currently in hospital receiving the necessary medical care. He has sustained severe fractures and bruises. His family has launched a fundraiser to help support him and his mother financially.

Background:

• On the night of 18-19 November, Russia launched a combined attack on Ukrainian cities. Explosions were reported in Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
• In Ternopil, a multi-storey building was destroyed in the Russian attack. Early reports indicate that it was hit by a Kh-101 missile.
• At least 26 people, including three children, were killed in the strike. More than 90 residents were injured.
• Rescue efforts are ongoing. People are still being searched for under the rubble.

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