January 15, 2023 18:03
Compiled social media posts after the Russian attack that killed 46 people in Dnipro on January 14, 2023 by Yulia Kuzmenko
This Saturday an apartment building was torn apart by a rocket over the Dnipro. Here are some of the stories by surviving residents of the building destroyed by the Russians on January 14
City of Dnipro, weekend, lunchtime. At two o'clock the alarm sounds, which will last for about three hours. During another massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine, a missile hit a 9-story residential building. According to the deputy head of the President's Office, Kyril Tymoshenko, that building had 16 entrances. About 1,700 residents lived there. Almost immediately, relatives, acquaintances, and friends of the victims in the house in Dnipro started writing on social networks. We collected several stories.
Rusana Babkina
Rusana is from Mariupol. Her mother, sister and grandmother lived in the entrance that collapsed as a result of the attack. She told the story of her family on her Facebook page. On the very first day of the full-scale invasion of Russia, her parents joined the civil defense in their native Mariupol. Subsequently, the defenders were at Azovstal, and on May 17, they left and surrendered as prisoners. Mother was released after 5 months, on October 17, Rusana's father is still in captivity. Rusana herself and her grandmother left for the Dnipro from the occupation at the end of March. There I met my sister, who left Kharkiv under shelling on March 5. the Russians destroyed the building of Rusana's father and grandmother. During April and May, Rusana constantly published on her page appeals for help to the defenders of Azovstal, the conditions of the soldiers there, appeals from their commanders.
Rusana cites the last correspondence with her family before the attack on January 14:
"The last time I spoke to my mother on the phone was at 15:07 2 minutes 5 seconds.
"Everything is quiet with us, rest."
It's a day off, Saturday, my mother was supposed to be on duty in the Armed Forces, but she stayed at home because of SARS, my sister was tidying up another rented apartment, my grandmother had just finished frying chebureks in the kitchen..."
Currently, nothing is known about the fate of Rusana's relatives.
Anastasia Shvets
A photo of Arsen Drozdaev, spread across the networks and mass media. In the photo, the girl is sitting next to her own bathtub in the ruins of the apartment and is waiting for rescue. New Year's rain is in her hands. This is Anastasia Shvets, she is 23 years old. In February, even before the large-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the girl completed her master's degree at the University of Customs and Finance in Dnipro.
Anastasia says the following about the attack:
"I was covered with a door in the bed, part of the kitchen is in the room, there is no bathroom, kitchen, corridor and pantry, there is a chasm and I can see the other part of the entrance, someone else's entrance. He kept me almost intact, despite the wound on my head and my bare, ragged legs.
I don't know where my parents are. They say that they were seen alive, I am sure that they were in the kitchen, which is no longer there. I didn't want to escape, I wanted my parents to be found."
In September, Anastasia's boyfriend, who fought in the ranks of the Armed Forces, died. The girl's mother Natalya helps animals, does needlework and bakes to order.
The family of Maryna and Andrii
Arina Medvedeva, a close friend of Maryna Figurnaya, who disappeared under the rubble, wrote a post on Instagram: "My friends are in the photo. Marina Figurna and her husband Andriy Osynskyi. Yesterday evening they came from Odessa to visit their parents in Dnipro, because they had not seen them for a year because of the damn war. Everyone who knows me closely understands that Marina is closer to me than a sister. A rocket flew into their driveway. There is no information about them! They are not in hospitals either. All relatives were in the apartment."
As of 21:00 on January 14, Maryna's mother was found and taken to the Mechnikov hospital in Dnipro, she is in intensive care. Arina is waiting for any information about the rest of the people.
Marina studied at the National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine. She and her beloved Andrii got married in 2015. He is an Internet marketer.
Halychi family
Yevhen Halych wrote: "This is my grandfather, who is almost 90 years old, survived the war, and now he has to live through it again. Let people see and know that even the enemy does not deserve the pain that ordinary pensioners are experiencing."
Evgeny Maksym and their older sister Tatiana post a request for help on Instagram, stating that their mother and grandfather were left homeless due to the attack on January 14. The grandfather was wounded, a photo of the bloodied man was published by the granddaughter in the newspaper.
Instagram / evgeniigalich
Two girlfriends and mothers
Friends Iryna Salamatina and Olga Usova died under the rubble. Both dentists. On January 14, they were passing by the house that was hit by a rocket. Ola left behind a 3-year-old son. Olga is from Donetsk. She worked in the dental "volunteer landing party", leaving on a specially equipped bus to treat soldiers on assignments. Olga's relative wrote in memory of the dead women: "Unfortunately, there is no way for me to be there instead of you, I would change without thinking..."
Iryna has two children, a 13-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter. They were in Poland for some time in the spring, but returned home.
Maksym Omelyanenko
31-year-old Maksym is now defending the hottest point of the front — Bakhmut. A few weeks before the shelling of the Dnipro, he reflected on his service: "If I die young, I promise that everything will be okay with me, no one lives forever, but I hope that when my time comes to leave, I will leave with a smile (...) Life is a journey, I am grateful that I have the opportunity to live and learn through pain."
After learning about the tragedy in his house, he went to the Dnipro. His mother Lyudmila, a dog and a cat were under the rubble. The mother was rescued from their apartment on the top floor, she survived in part of the kitchen, crushed by the stove.
Maxim fought in the Kherson region before the Bakhmut direction, and before the invasion of the Russian Federation in February 2022, he worked as a coach in Dnipro.
Maksym's cousin Anna Gaevska also talks about the collapse of her childhood home: "After yesterday's tragedy in the Dnipro, part of my family was left without a home, because my two aunts live in the same house across 2 entrances."
Inna Ivinska
Craftswoman Inna Ivinska and her family survived the tragedy, but lost their home. The woman is a doctor by education, worked in her profession for about 15 years, then mastered a creative occupation and became a craftswoman in the manufacture of Ukrainian folk toys. She is a member of the National Union of Masters of Folk Art of Ukraine. She stayed in Ukraine with the start of a full-scale war and since March has been holding free master classes for all those who want to - live and online - on the making of dolls. Kazala said that this is her way of helping women in new circumstances, art therapy.
Together with Lyudmila Malysheva from Dnipro, they launched the project "Ukrainian woman as a symbol of uniting the generations of the Nation", where local women were gathered for master classes to revive folk puppetry. One of her recent charity events was for St. Nicholas Day, when Inna taught those willing to make dolls, which were then distributed on the streets of Dnipro as part of the "Nikolai will not forget you" campaign.
The Zhuravskyi family
Roman and Olena Zhuravski with their two children escaped from the front-line Toretsk, Zaporizhzhia region. Elena is pregnant with her third child. They lived together with their 73-year-old grandmother in the destroyed nine-story building. That day she stayed at home because she was not feeling well, and the family went to church. The grandmother died, said family friend Serhii Pavlovsky.
Children
Currently, it is known that thirteen children were injured in Dnipro. Six were found alive under the rubble. One child died.
Olena Dovhal, a Dnipro resident, wrote after the attack that on January 15, her daughter Vika was supposed to have classes in the area near the destroyed house. The class was cancelled. The guy from the older daughter's parallel from NVK No. 111, Maksym Bogutskyi, is probably under the rubble, he has not been found yet.
