"I thought I would burn alive': victim of Russian drone attack on dormitory near Kyiv

Record ID: 1717185

  • Title: "I thought I would burn alive': victim of Russian drone attack on dormitory near Kyiv
  • Date: 22nd March 2023
  • Summary: OBUKHIV, UKRAINE (MARCH 22, 2023) (REUTERS) DOCTORS WALKING DOWN HOSPITAL CORRIDOR VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WOUNDED IN RUSSIAN DRONE ATTACK IN HOSPITAL BEDS (SOUNDBITE) (UKRAINIAN) OLEKSANDR SHELEST, TEACHER AT RZHYSCHIV COLLEGE SAYING : "I felt the temperature of my body going up so much that I thought I would burn alive, for a fraction of a second I wished that the concrete slab above falls down on me to stop me from burning alive. This is what was going on through my mind in the fraction of the second after the explosion." SHELEST SITTING NEXT TO HOSPITAL BED, HOLDING HIS WIFE, VIRA SHELEST'S HAND (SOUNDBITE) (UKRAINIAN) OLEKSANDR SHELEST, TEACHER AT RZHYSCHIV COLLEGE SAYING : "When the blast wave hit and the ceiling started to crumble we were all together at that moment, there was a lot of smoke and our clothes caught fire. I am so happy my children were smart enough to tear their clothes off quickly, we were a bit slower and we suffered some burns but it really doesn't matter because we are alive." VARIOUS OF VIRA SHELEST IN HOSPITAL BED SHOWING HER INJURIES VARIOUS OF DOCTORS (SOUNDBITE) (UKRAINIAN) INNA TOPCHIY, CHIEF DOCTOR AT OBUKHIV INTENSIVE CARE UNIT SAYING: "Just after 5 a.m. seven patients were brought to our hospital, six adults and one child, victims of the attack in Rzhyschiv." VARIOUS OF DOCTORS, NURSES, HOSPITAL BEDS
  • Embargoed: 5th April 2023 17:21
  • Keywords: Iranian drones Russian drones war in Ukraine
  • Location: OBUKHIV, UKRAINE
  • City: OBUKHIV, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA001944922032023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: At least four people were killed and several injured in a dormitory south of Kyiv as Russia blasted Ukraine with missiles on Wednesday (March 22) and swarmed cities with drone attacks overnight.
    In Rzhyshchiv, a riverside town south of the capital, at least six people were killed, 18 injured and three still missing after a drone struck two college dormitories. Reuters saw a five-storey building with a collapsed section of the top floor.
    Victims, some with severe burns were brought to a hospital in nearby Obukhiv.
    "I felt the temperature of my body going up so much that I was about to start burning, for a fraction of a second I wished that the concrete slab above falls down on me to stop me from burning alive, "Oleksandr Shelest, a teacher at one of the colleges said.
    Sirens blared across the capital during the night and swathes of northern Ukraine, and the military said it had shot down 16 of 21 Iranian-made Shahed suicide drones.
    (Production: Ivan Lyubysh Kirdey, Sergiy Voloshin, Anna Dabrowska)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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