ODESA, Ukraine – His ear bloodied, voice trembling and eyes dark, Odesa resident Roman described the moment he found the lifeless bodies of his son and daughter-in-law after a Russian drone smashed into their apartment building.
“The ceilings collapsed, we were pinned by furniture. My wife and I tried to get out,” he told AFP, breaking into tears.
“She rushed to our son and screamed, ‘half his head is gone’.”
“I checked their pulses. There was no pulse – neither in Vlad, nor in my daughter-in-law,” Roman added, rescuers still working behind him.
At least nine people were killed in the southern city, targeted by “several waves of missiles and drones throughout the night,” the head of the local military administration, Mr Sergiy Lysak said.
It was one of the deadliest overnight attacks for weeks – but just the latest in a long list since Russia invaded four years ago.
Residents of one apartment block in the Black Sea city recalled a terrifying night of thundering explosions and screams as balconies and windows smashed, scattering shards of glass in all directions.
Roman, who did not give his surname, tried to console his wife over the fate of their son.
“I kept telling my wife, ‘He has a pulse, he’s alive. Alive – have hope, he’s alive.’”
The bodies of those killed have yet to be formally identified.
Another resident, Tetiana, said she was standing near the window when the first blast happened.
“I bent down, and the entire window blew into my apartment,” she said.
She grabbed her dog and tried to run to the basement.
“I heard screams, and we ran quickly,” she said, still gasping hours later.
“They bombed us all night, without stopping for even half an hour,” she said.
“I’m afraid to stay here. I’ve already packed my things, because people say there will be more strikes.”
Firefighters at the site of a Russian strike on a residential building in Odesa, Ukraine, on April 16.
PHOTO: AFP
Ms Liubov Karpynska, the building’s janitor, jumped out of bed and ran to a nearby bomb shelter after hearing loud blasts.
“Everything was burning there, and people were trapped under the rubble,” she said.
“A woman from a nine‑storey building was screaming very loudly. We couldn’t provide help because we were running away too.”
Earlier in the night, she had offered a place in her apartment to a friend – later killed in the attack.
“But she said, ‘I really want to sleep.’ She fell asleep – asleep forever. That’s how it is.” AFP
