‘We had 20 seconds to run’: Survivors of Russian attack on Zelenskyy’s hometown speak to Sky News
Moving away from the summit on Ukraine for a moment, we can bring you some news from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, where a Russian missile strike struck a hotel overnight.
According to the local authorities, four people were killed and 31 people injured in the strike on Kryvyi Rih.
We’ve just spoken to two survivors from the site of the attack, who for 10 minutes describe in harrowing detail what happened and show us the damage inflicted by the strike.
Karol Swiacki, chief executive of charity Ukraine Relief, arrived in the central Ukrainian city with sports equipment and generators to support schools, shelters and refugees in need of electricity.
“It’s so hard to describe how we feel at this time, standing here,” he tells Sky News from the site of the attack.
“We are a witness of absolutely terrible events.”
Marc Edwards, an aid worker from Texas in the US, describes the moment the attack happened as hotel guests gathered for dinner.
He says people received a 20-second warning via text that a Russian missile was incoming.
“We stood up, we started running to the shelter. We’d barely left the table and it had taken out the building,” he said.
“We were protected from the flying glass because of some heavy curtains. We climbed out through broken windows.”
‘This is Russia’s message’
This is not the first time this hotel has been hit by a Russian strike, having been struck on 20 October last year.
“That is a direct hit on the hotel,” says Edwards.
“It wasn’t a fluke, it wasn’t a rogue missile, it was a direct hit to take out civilian people.
“That’s the message Russia wants to send the world.”
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