Valentyna Filippova is one of those who survived the night of the massive russian attack on Kyiv on April 24, 2025, when the city was covered with everything: Shaheds, calibres and ballistic missiles. Then 12 people were killed and about a hundred Kyiv residents were injured. Destruction was seen in five districts of the capital.

Valentyna did not sleep that night. She felt: something was going to happen. Putting on a T-shirt and trousers, she didn’t even have time to go to the shelter before the explosion occurred: The door was blown off, the balcony windows shattered, and a red cloud hung in the air – probably from a nearby explosion. The woman fell down in the corridor and “whimpered like a dog” in terror.

And then – silence, darkness, panic. Her dogs, Leia and Perchyk, each experienced it in their own way. Perchyk, older and phlegmatic, waited out the explosion almost calmly. And Leia, silent and frightened, did not approach her owner for two days. “She just disappeared, hiding somewhere,” says Valentyna.

At dawn, the woman went outside. The houses in the neighbourhood were destroyed. In her own home, there were shattered windows, broken shutters, and flowers scattered around the room.

Valentyna has lived in her house since 1964. It was once built as departmental housing for workers at the aircraft plant. Her parents also worked there. She is not just scared, she is in pain to see the destruction in her neighbourhood.