Yuliia is ADRA Ukraine’s Education Specialist
Sometimes there are not enough words to describe the feelings and emotions that I experience – the danger that I feel with every cell in my body.
The photo shows the view from our window. The house is between the Pozniaky and Osokorky metro stations. We were so happy that we were moving to Kyiv. We thought that we would be at least a little closer to home, and be able to travel if the situation allowed. It was very difficult to find an apartment since landlords are often unfavourable to renters with animals. But finally, after three weeks of searching, we had the keys.
Then came the first weekend in a new place. The first parcels with things from Mukachevo. The move to a new apartment had begun. The children were happy and making plans for the week.
We saw a lot of bird’s eye view photos from young bloggers: on one side of the house - Aladdin mall, and on the otherArkadia mall. Kyiv in the evening sunset, Kyiv in the morning dawn, cars on the avenue, deliverymen, people walking with dogs. The city was alive, with everyone making plans for the coming week...
Anxiety changed the plans of our first-year students. I did not let my super-conscientious niece go for her first classes. My daughter and I were persuaded that it is not good to be late, and that it would be necessary to be closer to the subway in order to catch the first train and make it to the early classes on time.
But the messages I was seeing in the chat rooms were not pleasant. They constantly wrote about shelling. A video was posted in student chat rooms of a girl who came under fire. We moved into the vestibule since it was big enough in this apartment.
We anxiously awaited some good news.
We clearly felt the moment of shelling. The windows on the balconies opened (we had already learned how to protect ourselves from splinters, so I had turned the handles on the windows so that they would not fly out from the shockwaves).
A bit later, I took a photo of Kyiv after the shelling. Black smoke covered everything that had made children so happy just the day before.
I don’t know what the source was, but the smoke rose for a very long time.
Yesterday was a day of reflection: would it be worth picking up parcels from the post office? Should we cancel the arrival of the family from Mukachevo...
Even though this morning was uneasy, there was a feeling that we needed to stay here. This way was not easy, but if it was given to me from above, then I would go further.
The photo of this morning inspired optimism and hope. I believe and move forward.
Vadim is ADRA Ukraine’s Public Relations Manager
I was returning from a business trip from Lviv to Kyiv. The train was supposed to arrive at 9:50 a.m., but at that time Ukraine was subjected to a massive missile attack. During the missile strike, I was in the underground passage of the station. There was a bomb that was dropped not far from the station. The station windows were broken by the blast wave.
Darya Vitaliivna is ADRA Ukraine’s Public Relations Manager
I currently live in Kriukivshchyna village, Kyiv region (Bucha district). It had been relatively quiet and relatively safe here for a long time, so I didn’t expect to wake up to the loud sounds of bombs and rockets again.
On October 10, I woke up at 8 a.m. from the powerful explosion of a missile being shot down by air defense. I know these sounds well because I had already heard them at the beginning of the full-scale invasion on February 24 – at that time I was also near Kyiv. I no longer had such fear and confusion as before – I already knew the “rule of two walls” and where to hide. I immediately went to the bathroom, set up my study there and held a work meeting there. The entire time of the air alarm (about 5 hours) I did not leave the bathroom. I also wrote to the organization where I was located, so that in the event of a critical situation, I would have the opportunity to evacuate from the city (because now I am in an apartment alone and without a vehicle). At the moment, I do not leave the apartment because air alarms last quite a long time.
Didenchuk Yelyzaveta is an ADRA Ukraine Staff
The events of October 10 caught us all by surprise.
Many ADRA Ukraine employees were waiting for a meeting with partners in Kyiv when the air raid alarm and explosions began to sound.
My husband, who had just been there, did not pick up his phone when I called him. It was later revealed that he and the rest of the team had gone down to the basement for safety.
The news about bombs that dropped 1 km from the office made me feel afraid. But our team was together and supported each other.
Other employees who were in relative safety promptly continued to perform their duties, working and providing assistance to others.
Bohdana is ADRA Ukraine’s Project Assistant
On October 10 at 10 a.m., I was expecting an ECHO project donor to arrive with ADRA Ukraine team. Accordingly, the team and I convened at 8:45 a.m. in our office in Kyiv at Larysy Rudenko Str., 3 to complete the last preparations before the meeting (preparing visual material and gifts for donors).
Then, the first explosion sounded and immediately our team went to the basement of the building, where, as much as possible, we continued to finish our work tasks. Later the representative of the ECHO project cancelled the meeting altogether.
During that time, I heard another explosion. Later, it became known that it was only 2 km away from us.
Vladimir is ADRA Ukraine’s Project Coordinator
The Coordinator of Donetsk region told us about the following situation:
On October 10, we expected a truck with food packages in Kurakhovo, but the city was closed for entry due to the danger of bombing, so the truck stopped in Pokrovsk. We thought that after lunch it would still be possible to deliver the products to the destination, but it didn’t work out, so the truck was unloaded there, and the delivery was rescheduled to be in Pokrovsk and not in Kurakhovo. The work was suspended in Kurakhovo Pushkino 4 b, but all the other locations in the region worked as usual.
In Sumy and Poltava regions, due to power outages, the plant canceled the delivery of bread on October 11. But they planned to continue as usual from October 12, provided the situation did not worsen.
In Odessa, people in one distribution point were told to go home for security reasons. Other distribution locations worked in a limited mode, with a minimum number of people. Our volunteers were fearless people who did not want to completely close the distribution points and continued to work, only taking breaks for air raid alerts.
There were trips and distributions in Kherson and Kharkov regions. Everything was generally working as it normally would.
In Dnipro volunteers planned to go to distribution points, but because of bombing and sirens, the distribution did not start. After the end of the alarm both yesterday and today, the distribution points continued operating.
Liliia Postelnyak is ADRA Ukraine’s Regional Coordinator
I am from the Donetsk region. I’m very used to these shellings. We had more of these terrible and increasingly strong explosions. But since I have been in Kyiv for about four months, I started to forget about terrible things like explosions. And I also have an apartment overlooking the bridge – a corner apartment on the fourth floor with many windows. And when, after not hearing them for a long time, these explosions started again yesterday, it was a shock for me. I was so frightened that I took my child and ran into the corridor out of habit, just as we had done in the Donetsk region. We waited there until everything calmed down. Of course, I had heard such explosions earlier, but it’s difficult to describe just what I felt at that moment when they started again.
Mariinka and Kurakhovo communities also suspended distribution yesterday.
