Joel Gunter
Report from Kyiv
BBCEvhen Povarenkov stood on police videotapes, separating the public from the intensive search and rescue operations around the buildings.
He stared at what was left of the apartment in the outskirts of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. His windows disappeared and his balcony was on the verge of collapse.
Below, personal belongings are scattered along the road. Bed sheets and towels were hung from the branches.
Early Tuesday morning, a cruise missile hit the ordinary residential area near Soloroniaski, possibly at about 500 mph. The explosion destroyed 35 apartments and excavated a portion of the entire building.
By Wednesday afternoon, 23 people were found dead in the ruins. Throughout Ukraine, at least 30 people were known to have been killed in the attack, except for two in Kiev.
The Ukrainian Air Force said the air strikes on the Poirunkov building were just one of the huge waves launched by Russia – more than 440 drones and 32 missiles in total.
From midnight to dawn, the barrage smashed the capital for nine hours. This is one of the worst attacks on Kiev since Ukraine began its full-scale invasion.
Povarenkov is a 43-year-old warehouse worker who lowers his head from a ruined apartment. His face was cut and swept, and one of his eyes was severely bleeding. He couldn’t see it.
He said he was in bed when the missile hit. His older mother fell asleep in the room next door.
“There is heat, fire and smoke,” he said, recalling the huge impact that was only a few meters away from the wall. “I lost consciousness. When I came, I heard my mother screaming.”
Neighbors help Povarenkov eliminate his twisted doors and make his mother an apartment. Other survivors are pouring into the remains of broken buildings.
“People are screaming and kids are crying,” said Arcadiy Volenchuk, a 60-year-old pensioner.
Outside, residents try to find a safe route through burning cars and falling debris.
“Everything is on fire,” said Ala, 69, a teacher. “The fuel tank in the car is exploding. Broken glass is poured from above with concrete and tiles.”
He said Puvalenkov’s mother was taken to intensive care and cut her eyes with two broken clavicle bones and caused serious damage to internal organs that needed surgery.
She is one of more than 100 people injured in the city. Around midnight, Serhii Dubrov, an anesthesiologist and director of the 12th Kyoo Clinical Hospital, felt the strike began.
He said his hospital alone would receive 27 patients within a few hours.
“They suffered soft tissue damage, lacerations of broken glass, damage to blood vessels. Brain injuries and internal chest injuries. A femoral artery incision – we were able to repair it. The worst was women who had a head injury.
“These are the kind of damage we see from these attacks.”
He said Dr. Dubrov Hospital has a patient range of 18 to 95. Three in their 90s. Such strikes, on residential buildings, are especially dangerous for the elderly and the weak, who cannot easily rush into underground shelters.
Oleksandr Bondarchuk is a 64-year-old disabled person whose apartment is close to the impact point and cannot access the shelter. He said he was frightened in bed.
An hour after the attack, Bondarchuk was able to walk downstairs slowly. “It’s so scary,” he said. “Everything was destroyed.”
Some of these apartments have severely damaged people who are able to find shelter with friends or relatives. Others are not lucky. “That’s what I have,” Bonnak said.
The strike attacked Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky went to Canada’s G7 meeting to meet with world leaders. Some in Ukraine suspect that the timing was intentional – a cruel message from Russia.
The scale of the attack underscores Ukraine’s urgent need for international support, including the increase in air defense. But in the end, it would be an unsuccessful day for Zelensky.
With the strike, his bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump has flourished, and Trump announced that he would leave the meeting early in the Middle East crisis.
In the absence of Trump, European leaders failed to jointly support the country at a meeting in Ukraine – a statement received a lot of support in Ukraine.
When Zelensky returned home from Canada on Wednesday, people from near Soloroniasky in southwestern Kiev gathered at the scene of the cruise missile attack.
The police wouldn’t let Evhen Povarenkov pass the tape line to retrieve his and his mother’s property from the broken apartment, so he just stood and stared. A hundred feet away, first responders had just found two bodies in the rubble.
They said they didn’t know how much they would find.
Anastasia Levchenko contributed to the report. Photos of Joel Gunter.
