"Sometimes survival is just luck": a Kyiv woman describes being at the epicentre of Russia's 16 April attack – photos
On the night of 15-16 April, a Russian strike on Kyiv killed four people, including an 11-year-old boy. Dozens were injured. Among those caught up in the attack was Viktoriia, who survived the blast in her apartment.
Source: Viktoriia in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttia (Life)
Details: Viktoriia's apartment was in the epicentre of the strike. Her front door was jammed shut by the explosion, and she hid in her bathroom.
Viktoriia spoke to Ukrainska Pravda. Zhyttia about what she went through that night and the aftermath of the attack.
Viktoriia said she woke up to the sound of the air-raid warning at 02:31. Minutes later, she saw a bright orange flash in the sky.
She was sleeping almost right next to the window, so a large amount of debris in all sorts of sizes flew onto her bed.
"It felt like watching a 3D film: from this bright background, shards of glass were flying towards you at incredible speed after the powerful blast," she recalls. "I remember feeling a burning sensation on my face and arm. I was probably shielding myself from the wave of hot air."
Viktoriia ran to the front door, but the impact was so strong that the lock was jammed. She tried to open it, but she couldn't. She was trapped inside the apartment and feared she would be unable to escape if a fire broke out.
Viktoriia stayed in the bathroom, which was almost untouched by the blast, until the all-clear was given. It wasn't until around 09:00 that the emergency services were able to open the door.
"The scariest thing in this situation is the realisation that sometimes surviving a strike is just luck," she says. "I survived despite being in the centre of the strike. But my apartment is badly damaged – wallpaper torn off, windows shattered, belongings slashed by shrapnel.
Theoretically, if I'd run to the shelter straight after the air-raid warning, I would have been in the stairwell when the strike hit. And there, all the doors and windows were blown out and were flying around at top speed. The ground floor of the building was destroyed as well: if anyone had been there at that moment, they probably wouldn't have survived. The epicentre of the explosion was very close."
The entire facade of the building is now pitted by large pieces of shrapnel. There are craters outside, and it's dangerous to walk nearby due to the risk of glass and balcony structures collapsing.
"I have trouble sleeping now," Viktoriia says. "That bright flash keeps coming back in my memory, followed by a loud explosion. And it's as if I can hear myself screaming from the outside.
Night is associated with danger for me now, so it's really hard to relax or fall asleep. It feels like I have to stay constantly alert, ready to react."
Two people were killed in the building where Viktoriia lives – a 35-year-old woman and an 11-year-old boy named Maksym. Maksym was asleep during the attack. He was killed in his own bed.
Maksym was a fifth-grade student. He is survived by his older brother, parents and grandparents.
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