When the air raid siren sounded, Yurii Ivanovitch rang his wife, Halyna. She was at home, working on the balcony of their fourth-floor apartment in central Kharkiv. “Get inside,” he warned her. Seconds later he heard an explosion: a terrifying and demonic bang. “Everything is falling. It hit me,” Halyna said. “I’m hurt. Blood is flowing.”
A Russian missile had landed in their yard. It obliterated a cinema, blew out windows, and raked Yurii’s garage with shrapnel. Debris struck Halyna on the back of the head. A door, blown from its frame, bowled her over. She staggered to her feet and crawled to the bedroom. Paramedics pulled her out, stepping over a sea of broken glass. They took her to hospital.
