I was walking my dog when I heard explosions: Story of resident of Dnipro City building hit by Russian missile
The Russian occupying forces launched a missile attack on the city centre of Dnipro on the evening of 28 July. The Russian troops hit a building of the Security Service of Ukraine and a high-rise residential building. The bombardment injured nine people.
One of the houses in the Geneva residential complex was hit by a missile and suffered significant damage. A resident has shared with Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia her memories of that night, thoughts on her lost home and plans for the future.
One of the affected flats belongs to Olha Maliienko. She is a postgraduate student at Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, Faculty of Applied Mathematics. She is preparing to present her thesis in 2024.
Her husband is currently a serviceman, although he used to be a sole trader. He has been fighting almost since the beginning of the full-scale invasion – on 24 February, his friends and he went to the military draft office. He began fulfilling combat missions a few days later.
He and Olha decided to buy new housing before the full-scale invasion in December 2022.
"The 81.5 metres squared of an apartment was costly for us. I had some money after selling my mother's house as an inheritance, my husband sold his car, and we borrowed some from friends. It was a great dream for us, and we had been working towards it for a long time," Olha says.
They decided to redecorate their apartment in March 2023. Olha drew up the project with her own hands and supervised the process.
28 July was a day like any other for her. The wiring in the apartment had been finished, so Olha had to settle the bill for the work and check that it was done in the evening.
"I took my dog out for a walk in the evening, and we went towards Geneva [housing complex]. The first explosion occurred. We were just near the site that was hit back in 2022 – at the Troitskyi market. We fell to the ground, the second explosion occurred, and we rushed to the shelter," says Olha.
The residents' chat room received a message saying the building had been hit. After the all-clear was given, Olha and her pet walked towards the complex, where she saw the extent of the destruction.
"No one was let inside, so I was hoping that only the windows were damaged until the morning. Only in the morning could we see what had been left. The 12th floor became a single space. There were no walls in the flats," the woman says.
She said people were in the section at the time of the explosion. They were on the lower floors and wrote in the chat that they could leave the area by the stairs.
"Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, and there were no fatalities," she emphasises.
Olha says people used to live in her section. It was commissioned last year, and the gas supply was connected just this summer
"We had planned to move in before the new year," says a resident in despair.
The housing cooperative, residents and the developer have started cleaning the yard and sections. Contractors are measuring windows and doors that require repairs. The developer has also undertaken a priority assessment of the damage and the preparation of a technical recovery plan.
"We don't really know how and by whose efforts we will be able to repair the house, but we hope it's possible," she concludes.
Background: On 29 July, emergency workers completed search and rescue operations. Besides the administrative and the high-rise building, four residential buildings in the area were damaged. Three administrative premises and seven cars were also damaged.
Photos: Suspilne
Read also: Lysychansk teacher injured in Russian attack undergoes reconstruction surgery in Lviv
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