Personal stories of Ukrainian victims of a Russian bombing —stories of loss and survival during what should have been a season of Easter celebration.
Instead of joy, there was sorrow, pain, and devastation. Vitaly Stebenev reports from Kyiv, and adds a prayer request—for healing, and for peace.”
SCRIPT:
Russian rocket attack on April 24 2025
Vitaly Stebenev for GNA
INTRO: “Today, we share the personal stories of Ukrainian victims of a Russian bombing —stories of loss and survival during what should have been a season of Easter celebration. Instead of joy, there was sorrow, pain, and devastation. Vitaly Stebenev reports from Kyiv, and adds a prayer request—for healing, and for peace.”
REPORT:
Vitaly Stebenev, Kyiv, Ukraine: Four days after Russia announced Easter ceasefire Russian rocket early morning came and hit this civilian building. As a result 12 people with several kids among of them were killed and 87 people were wounded.
Kostia: During the first hour of the night a deafening blast occurred. I was knocked back, glass sliced my face, neck and all over my body with glass.
Nataliya: But at that moment I simply shielded the child with my body and glass rained down on me.
I was lying there covering her yelling Kostya. He shouted “I’m bleeding everywhere”. I yelled “We’re alive, we are alive. This is the entrance to our flat, our flat is just this. This is our flat and this is the neighbor’s flat. There used to be a wall that collapsed right here into our corridor. We frequently took cover here during alarms with the child. Thank God we weren’t hiding here in that moment. Everything collapsed entirely. A wardrobe was here and it fell blocking Kostia. This is our bedroom where we would go with the child. There is also no wall here and there is no wall. These are the walls of the adjacent apartment. There is a wall over there that will likely fall soon.
Kostia: They took me to the ICU and performed surgery on me. The doctor mentioned that I was very lucky because my face was all sliced up but my vision is okay. However if you look closely thankfully I didn’t get hit in the eye. He said all the arteries were intact and there was a very large wound and there were two lacerations and that both cuts were only a few millimeters from the carotid artery. He says that if the carotid artery were affected there would be a blood loss.
Vitaly Stebenev: A lot of people visit this location to convey their heartfelt sympathies to the families who have lost their loved ones and relatives. Ukraine wants peace, each Ukrainian family wants peace. Please continue to stand and pray for Ukraine. And thank you very much for all you have done already to support us during this more than three years war.
Story Provided By:
Vitaly Stebenev, Reporter
Producing Organization
We Can! https://www.wecan.tv/en/home-english/
Recording Location
Kyiv, Ukraine
Reporter / Producer
Vitaly Stebenev
People Interviewed and their Titles
Kostia, injured victim
Ntaliya, Kostia’s wife
ES 
EN