UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Feb. 26 — “We were sleeping, when an explosion went off. My scared kid started to cry. I realised that something happened in our home.” This is how Marharyta, 30, describes the first seconds after the Russian Shahed drone hit the dormitory where she lives with her daughter.
On the night of Feb. 26, Russia launched another massive drone and missile attack on Kharkiv, attacking the city with over 18 Shahed drones, injuring at least 16 people, including two children.
One of the Shahed drones hit the dormitory building in the residential area of the Shevchenkyvskyi district of Kharkiv. Instead of running away from the damaged building, Marharyta calmed her child and cleaned shards of glass that were her room windows before the explosion.
“We helped our neighbours to deal with the aftermath after the attack as much as we could,” Marharyta says as she’s trying, without success, to lock the door leading to her room. “Maybe it was knocked out because of the attack,” she adds.
On the dormitory's fifth floor was the epicenter of the explosion. Vasyl, 43, is searching for his jacket to look more “presentable” while speaking with journalists. He lives here with his wife and son. They were all awake when the Russian drone slammed into the room next to theirs.
“We fled to the hallway when the glass was blasted out from the windows. We didn't even have time to get scared,” Vasyl says when asked about what happened.
The light shines through the large hole in the next room, marking Shahed’s flight path. A white dust settled in every corner of it after the impact. “We just need to ‘sew up’ everything here, and we will continue to live in our home,” Vasyl doesn’t have plans to leave the dormitory.
A few floors below, 63-year-old Yevhenii looks at his damaged room. That night, he had decided to sleep in the room on the opposite side of the wall the Russian drone struck. It saved him from getting injured by the glass shattering.
“They also damaged my printer, I reported it to the police,” Yevhenii’s voice is quiet, filled with sadness.
Yevhenii walks down the damaged stairs to the street, where a crowd has formed a line at the tents of the Red Cross and the Proliska humanitarian organization. Eventually, he joins the queue, waiting to receive the aid volunteers provide.
Halia, 62, has already received humanitarian aid. She tells her relative not to overwork himself as he is helping her carry bags with the food and water bottles. He assures Halia that everything is okay, that it’s not that hard for him.
“I heard the siren, and then sounds of the Shahed drone. I realized that it went down. Boom! And then such a big glow,” Halia shares. Like many others in the dormitory, she also doesn’t have windows.
“I’m not injured, but my heart hurts. I have drank Barboval (a sedative drug — ed.) three times already.”
In the Red Cross’s tent, Yulia, a volunteer, emotionally explains to a local woman that she has no right to receive any aid if she isn’t the dormitory’s resident. “You have approached me three times already with the same question,” Yulia almost yells at her, after hearing her say that she “just came to ask.”
When the woman leaves, Yulia exhales with relief, the kind smile returning to her face. The Red Cross came to the impact site four hours after the attack. The volunteer says that most of the people who came for the help are senior citizens and families with children.
“We provide backpacks, children's hygiene products, water, tarpaulin to cover the windows, power banks, and all that stuff,” Yulia says. “And, well, we sometimes bring some interesting toys with us to make the children happy.”
Today, Yulia says, they distributed all the aid they had.
On the other side of Kharkiv, in the Saltivskyi district, a Russian Shahed drone struck a 57-year-old Tetiana’s brick house. She was asleep with her husband when the drone hit their kitchen, reducing it — along with the bathroom — to ashes.
“A brick fell on me. Then the TV fell from above, and a wardrobe covered my husband,” she says, adding that it was a big luck that nothing heavy fell on them.
Now, municipal workers are clearing the rubble that was Tetiana’s place just a day ago with an excavator.
“Friends are letting us stay in their flat for some time,” Tetiana says. Still, her family doesn't have a permanent place to live after the Russian strike destroyed their only home.
Hey, Nazar’s here. This was an extremely harsh night for Kharkiv. Today, we covered only two of 12 locations Russia attacked with the Shahed drones. Each of these sites has a human story of what Russia has taken from people in Ukraine. If you want to help us tell these stories, please consider buying us a coffee or becoming a member of our community.
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