Actual blast magnitudes were significantly greater than what’s visible on video.
Destroyed house in the village of Mylla, Kyiv region / © Mykola Kalashnyk
Ruslana Sydorenko, a resident of the village of Mylla in the Kyiv region, described how she and her family survived a Russian attack on an ammunition depot. Due to the continuous powerful explosions that shook the house walls, the family hesitated for a long time to leave the basement where they were hiding during the shelling.
The woman shared this with the “Kyiv 24” TV channel.
According to Sydorenko, the scale of the explosions in reality was far greater than what can be seen in the video. The family hid under the stairs in the basement and prayed, trying to wait out the attack.
“I didn’t think we would survive. Honestly, I’m in a stressful situation, people react differently, perhaps I’m collected in a stressful situation, I think more clearly on adrenaline. And at that moment, I was somehow collected, really,” the woman said.
She noted that due to the extremely powerful explosions, the family could not even go up from the basement to the second floor to retrieve documents and money. Her husband tried to go out several times, but returned each time due to new explosions.
“We couldn’t even leave the basement just to go to the safe, to get documents, money, everything that was on the second floor. My husband tried to go out several times, to run, but he only got halfway up the stairs, and every 30 seconds there was a powerful explosion that just shook the walls,” recalled Sydorenko.
The family tried to protect themselves from dust and smoke using water and blankets, which they had stored in the basement in advance for emergencies.
“We sat under the stairs, where it was practically hell. We were wetting – we had canisters of water prepared there in advance, they had been standing there for maybe half a year just in case – blankets, fabrics, everything, and we covered ourselves with them, we breathed through them because there was a lot of dust, smoke,” the woman said.
Later, the intensity of the explosions somewhat decreased, but it remained dangerous to be in the house. According to Sydorenko, carbon monoxide began to accumulate in the premises, making it difficult for the family to breathe.
“And my husband said it was already carbon monoxide, I felt it myself that it started to descend, and we couldn’t breathe anymore,” said the resident of the village of Mylla.
Then the family decided to leave the house, despite the danger. They carried the children, and according to the woman, ran through debris and burning embers falling from the scorched ceiling.
Ruslana noted that the family was essentially faced with a choice between the danger of staying in the smoky basement and the risk of going outside during the attack.
“We would either suffocate there, or die somewhere on the street. It doesn’t matter anymore, so we took the risk, and, thank God, we just miraculously survived,” said the resident of the village of Mylla.
As a reminder, Ruslana Sydorenko previously published a video on Instagram showing her family hiding from explosions in the basement of their house and then evacuating the village in a car with a broken windshield.
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Kyiv region Explosions Shelling Comments Sort by: New Old Popular Send