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UMAN, Ukraine – Inna stood looking at what was left of her home Friday, the building’s facade nearly dead. Maybe his children, Kyrylo, 17 years old and Sophia, 11 years old, have been carried away by the explosion, he kept repeating to the wind. Maybe he will be found alive.
Her husband, Dmytro, had run into the children’s room after a Russian rocket thundered into the 9-story apartment building before dawn in the city of Uman, and forced the door open.
“There is no room behind the door,” said Dmytro, who asked that only his first name be used. “Just a cloud of fire and smoke.”
Inna and her youngest child, 6 years old, were in another room and were not injured.
“I don’t know what to do,” said Dmytro, still in shock, as rescue crews searched the rubble of his building. “Should I look for my older children or help my wife and children out of the house? Because I couldn’t see my older children, I ran out.
Psychologists on the scene offered help as neighbors tried to offer words of comfort.
Twelve hours after the missile struck, up to 23 people were killed, including four children, according to Ukraine’s emergency services. Seventeen people have been pulled out alive.
It is unclear how many people remain missing; more than 100 people are listed as living in the block that has the worst damage.
Bodies continued to be pulled from the rubble as evening fell. Convoys of dump trucks arrived one after the other to haul away the debris so workers could dig into the basement. The operation could last through the weekend, officials said.
Dymytro Vynohradov, 22, was one of the first emergency workers on the scene. As fire crews battle a blaze that lights up the pre-dawn sky, they rush to find safety.
On the seventh floor, he said he had found two old women and a man trapped behind a falling concrete ceiling. They were not hurt, he said, but dazed and confused.
“First, we need to calm down,” he said. “Then we helped him out of the balcony and down the long ladder from the fire truck.”
Mr. Vynohradov quickly returned to his friends to pull the other family of five to safety.
Not everyone he met in the ruins was alive. There was a 10-year-old boy who died in his pajamas, he said, and a little blonde-haired girl who appeared to be sleeping. “He had no visible injuries, but he was dead,” he said
The city of Uman, known for having one of Ukraine’s most beautiful parks, was one of the first places Russia bombed when it launched its full-scale invasion last year.
The city has been quiet for months, although residents could see missiles flying overhead as Russian forces fired rockets from the Black Sea toward the capital, Kyiv.
That’s why when the alarm went off across the country shortly after 4am on Friday, 34-year-old Halyna, who asked that her name not be published for security reasons, texted her sister in Uman. For more than a year, the pair exchanged messages when air raid sirens sounded in Uman, so family members in Kyiv would get a warning.
“Hi, is everything quiet?” wrote Halyna.
“Yes, it’s quiet now. And how are you?” answered his sister.
My brother-in-law’s phone went offline at 4:23 a.m. The family has two apartments, on the 7th and 8th floors, in the damaged building.
“I have hope that if he’s still alive, maybe he went to the basement,” Halyna said.
Anna Lukinova contribute reports.
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