"A shell hit the roof. It took just a few seconds..."

Danylo Bazyliev, 17 years old:

"A shell hit the roof. A shock wave blew out the ceiling, and the shell hit the nearby apartment. Fragments flew around during the explosion. It took just a few seconds...that all.

When a bomb exploded, I was standing by the table. The blast wave was so strong that I had to sit down and hold to table so as not to fall. I didn't even think straight for the first two or three seconds. Dust was everywhere. It was a cloud of dust. Light came from the hole.

I started shouting because I couldn't see my sister. So I started asking where she was. Then she opened the bathroom door, and we hid there for two or three minutes. I hugged her, we started to pray. Then a neighbor knocked on the door.

We tried to open the front door, but it wouldn't open. I started to clear the rubble and managed to open it. The neighbor couldn't believe what was happening either. The ceiling had collapsed, and a reinforcement bars and concrete pieces were hanging down. A pile of concrete was on the floor.

Mother Valenyna Bazylieva:

"I was at work. I couldn't come earlier. They wouldn't let me go. I came only when I finished my shift. I didn't get a call right away because the lines were cut off.

When I left work and managed to get through, I was told that Dasha was being taken to the hospital. I went straight to the hospital. We met outside. She was admitted immediately. Then we saw other children coming. We thought that her spine was broken. Luckily, there was no fracture, only a strong bruise on the back. Well, wounds were all over her body — on the back, on the hands, on the head.

They put her in and didn't even ask me for any medicine. The Rinat Akhmetov Foundation sent us everything we needed at once. They brought everything we needed, even food.

Dariia Bazylieva, 13 years old

"I went to the toilet, and then I heard a crashing sound somewhere around. I fell to my knees. The next thing I remember was the roof falling on me. As well as plaster and bricks. 

Valenyna Bazylieva,

"We didn't know what to do both psychologically and physically. As soon as we were discharged from the hospital, we went to see a psychologist for six months, because she couldn't stay in the apartment and didn't want to. She's still scared. We often called the Foundation to find out if the child needed help. The psychologists were also provided by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.

The child managed to return to the apartment to live here. She wants to go back to school. She said, "My back doesn't hurt any more. Mum, I don't need massages any more." It is all right.