By Yuri Kovalenko
VYSHNEVE, Ukraine (Reuters) – Inured by nearly two years of war, Olena Ohiievych wasted no time getting to work on Tuesday as she confronted the shambles left in her apartment by the latest Russian air attacks on Kyiv and its suburbs.
It was cold outside and bound to get colder.
“There are no windows left, no balcony. The balcony doors are shattered, the window glass and frame in every room have been torn out,” said Ohiievych, 25, who manages social media accounts. “We will install something, we plan to do something about all this.”
The overnight missile and drone attack was the second major assault on the capital in five days, killing at least two people and injuring dozens. Officials said the attacks were likely to intensify.
Bundled up in a bright pink ski jacket and scarf, with the daytime temperature just above zero (32 Fahrenheit), Ohiievich was determined to stay in her apartment on Kyiv’s western outskirts.
A group of friends she enlisted was already measuring up the windows.
“My plan is to cover the window with film today, if we don’t have time then we will stay with my parents in the countryside,” she said.
“I hope that with united effort, with my friends, we will do it, at least for the first couple days. So we can stay here when it’s freezing. And sleep here.”
In the courtyard, residents surveyed shrapnel holes on the facade of the multi-storey block and loaded up a truck with shattered glass and window frames.
Ohiievich said she considered herself lucky to have emerged unhurt.
“The building began to shake, like this,” she said gesturing rapidly. “I thought it was going to collapse on itself, that we were going to be squashed, that the wall behind us would fall and that would be it.”
Within seconds, those inside, seated on the floor, were covered in dust and unable to see anything, but unhurt.
“This wall likely saved our lives,” she said, looking around the room. “The only thing that crumbled was the stucco, that’s it. There was no shrapnel, thank God, this mirror is not broken, we stayed far away from it.”
(Reporting by Yuri Kovalenko and Stefaniia Bern; Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by David Gregorio)
