It took the firefighters more than a month to reach the bombed-out building and begin to pull the bodies out. Anyone who had survived the Russian attack on the block of flats in Borodyanka would have long since suffocated or died of thirst in this lonely concrete tomb.
Vadym, whose family is under the rubble, knows this. But he cannot let go of hope. Islanded by grief, the 45-year-old waits in front of the skeletal remains of the tower block for news of his loved ones’ bodies. The fisherman, who by chance was outside when the missile struck, clutches his winter jacket like a lifebuoy. It’s the only possession he has left in the world.
