UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Sep 25 — “And it goes bang! I got so scared. I got on my balcony, saw the people running somewhere. You know I don’t see your building from here, I was very worried,” a senior man says to his friend, “The things they have done here…”
“Oh, things they’ve done,” a woman in tears responds.
Another man comes closer to a queue. Asks: “And how will we live here now?”
Yesterday, from 3:20 to 3:45 p.m. Russia attacked the Kharkiv region with at least seven glide bombs. In Kharkiv, one bomb hit the territory of the bread backing plant; one hit the stadium; one right in the middle of a high-rise apartment building in Saltivka, one of the residential districts of the city. As of 8:04 p.m. today, officials reported that this Russian glide bomb attack killed four people and injured at least 36 throughout Kharkiv.
Two people living in this high-rise died because of the attack. At least 25, including a 17-year-old girl, were injured, according to the latest reports from the Kharkiv Police.
One woman died in the ambulance on her way to the hospital in the day of the attack.
Rescuers recovered the body of another woman from under the debris on the next day. Neighbors say she was 60. Workedas a cook in the hospital. Lived alone.
The street near the mostly destroyed building is busy. Municipal workers are cleaning up the debris—they collect glass, board blown-out windows.
Locals, those who lived in the high-rise that Russia targeted or those from buildings nearby, damaged by a blast wave, stand in a line for humanitarian aid from the volunteers.
Many look around in the crowd, searching for familiar faces.
Liudmyla walks home after receiving humanitarian aid. She is 83, lives across from the high-rise. In their building, a woman from the first floor got her head injured, but medics quickly provided her with first aid.
“I’m so bitter,” Liudmyla says. “This is the second war in my lifetime. My parents got sent to Ural when I was little. First, I studied in a Ukrainian school, then in a Russian one. Everyone laughed [at my accent, because] I was talking differently. But then I got back home. And now, Russia’s attacking. All that’s left is to endure.”
The woman says that she wanted to move to another flat of hers in Kharkiv, but there are cats there, and she’s allergic. Now, she’ll probably search for safer options.
Yurii and Olia’s family lived in one of the flats that got completely blown out of the building during the bombardment; the center of the hit. They were home with their four-year-old and her grandmother.
The girl and her granny prepared to eat in the kitchen, and Olha and Yurii were in the farthest room when Yurii saw the notification about the incoming attack. In Kharkiv—and in Ukraine, in general—people use various monitoring channels (e.g., TLK News in Telegram) to find out about upcoming threats.
“As usual, I took my child and got to the safest room, our granny went to her room, and my husband was just coming up to us, and he got slammed into the wall [by the explosion]. It took mere seconds. What a joy that he is alive and near me now. Granny’s face got cut by the glass, and I managed to cover my daughter with my body, so she is okay,” Olha says.
The family is alive and safe, but nothing of their belongings survived.
During the day on August 24, Russian troops hit Kharkiv with glide bombs.
Photo credit: A blown-out part of the high-rise building in Kyivskyi district after Russian glide bomb attack on September 24 / Daria Lobanok, Gwara Media
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that Russians had already hit this high-rise at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. It was almost repaired: all the windows were changed or fixed up, newly insulated, and prepared for the heating season.
Dasha Lobanok, Gwara’s journalist, went to the high-rise to talk to people in the aftermath of the Russian bombardment. Yana Sliemzina adapted her text for English-speaking audiences. Thank you for keeping track of what’s happening in Kharkiv amidst the Russian invasion. Please, consider also supporting our Kharkiv-based newsroom on Patreon, BMC, or PayPal.
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