“An explosive wave pushed me away, I started crawling, and then, the second hit took place,” producer Svitlana Dolbysheva

Svitlana Dolbysheva, the producer of the German television group ZDF, who was injured by the shelling of the Kharkiv Palace Hotel, has provided the details to the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU).

The Kharkiv Palace Hotel, located in the center of Kharkiv, was damaged by a russian missile fire on the evening of December 30. At the time of the russian attack, five employees of the German television company ZDF were in the hotel. Two of them – a security guard and a producer – were injured.

As it became known from fellow media workers, the security guard was slightly wounded. He was discharged from the hospital the same day. The producer was transferred to a Kyiv hospital. The reason was not the fact that it was a complicated medical case and they could not provide her with help in Kharkiv. This decision was made by all parties, in a way most convenient for everyone.

NUJU journalists managed to speak directly with the injured ZDF producer, Svitlana Dolbysheva. She is currently undergoing inpatient treatment in a capital hospital. Her condition is stable.

– I am very lucky; all my injuries are not life-threatening. I had a mine-explosive head injury, a cut, and a concussion. Also, the ceiling fell on my back, and I have fractured vertebrae, ribs, contusion, bruised lung, pneumothorax, and bruises all over my body. Doctors applied a couple of stitches on my head, Svitlana said.

The events of that day now pop up in the memory of the media woman in fragments.

– My colleagues and I finished work and agreed to meet at 7 p.m. in the lobby of the hotel to go to dinner. I did not hear the air raid alert as at the time when it was announced, I was in the bathroom. Then I got dressed, went down to the first floor, and sat down to wait for my colleagues. Now, separate frames are scrolling in the memory as this entire atrium is falling. The explosive wave threw me back, I started to crawl, and there was a second arrival, from which everything rained down even more, and then some glob fell on me. I was very scared then, recalls Svitlana.

She managed to get out from under the rubble, she ran to the shelter, which was served by the underground parking lot of the hotel.

– I understood that if I did not get out of that atrium now, I would simply be covered with falling debris. My phone was almost dead, and I turned on the video as I followed the signs to the shelter. I reached the elevator, it was blocked, and I sat on the floor, thinking: “Well, that’s it! I tried, but I didn’t succeed.”

Svitlana recalls how her condition worsened every minute.

– I started having severe pain, and I was in such a state that I could faint. But the hotel staff came up to me; they were also very confused, and they asked if I was okay. I didn’t answer, so they took my hand, asked if I could run, and we ran together. We could not leave immediately because the exits were blocked. Everyone was in a panic. But we did get to the underground parking lot. There, I saw my colleagues, who were also in a panic; they were whole.

Among her colleagues, Svitlana did not see a foreigner working as a security guard on their team. Later, it turned out that he was also wounded.

– He had an operation on his ears yesterday – fragments were found there. There will be another operation in two months. He had a head injury, Svitlana explains.

What surprises the girl the most is that she was not given medical assistance for a long time after receiving her wounds.

– I was bleeding. They put me on a bench; I lay there for 15 minutes. It became more and more painful, and it was difficult to breathe. I was approached by two doctors who had nothing, not even a pain reliever. They said they were sorting. Other doctors appeared in some extra 15 minutes. Ambulances arrived one by one, but they only took patients who came to see them. Our driver ran outside and tried to somehow coordinate the ambulance to bring me.

Svitlana says that emergency doctors took her from the shelter 40 minutes later. The same number were transported around the city from one hospital to another.

– I do not blame the doctors; I understand how difficult everything was. But it was strange because we were in the second year of the war, and Kharkiv is a city that is regularly shelled, and everyone should be ready for it. But no one is really ready.

Svitlana was in the hospital ward together with other victims of this shelling. As you know, during the attack, the enemy fired the city with six missiles, hitting many objects of civilian and residential infrastructure, including a hotel and a hospital, with debris. Then, the wreckage of an Iskander ballistic missile was found at the site of its landing.

– Two women were lying with me, injured by another missile that hit the house. And also the girl who was in the gym of the hotel on the 11th floor with her mother. At 1 a.m., Shahed UAVs began to explode around us, and we all left the ward and were already sleeping in the corridor. And the next day I was transferred from Kharkiv to Kyiv.

Currently, Svitlana Dolbysheva‘s condition has positive dynamics. Kyiv doctors provide her with all the necessary help.

– All the fractures that I have are okay, without displacements. I just need bed rest, and they will get well. Doctors’ forecasts are quite encouraging. I’ve been on antibiotics for a week; the bones should grow back in three to four weeks, and then it’s time for rehabilitation.

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) offered Svitlana its support. She assured that she did not need help.

– I was insured and officially employed. The media that I worked for are currently taking care of me; they are covering all of my medical expenses, and the insurance has to cover it all. Therefore, I would say that I do not need help at the moment because I do not want to abuse it. Perhaps someone else will need help more, because many colleagues are not insured.

Last summer, Svitlana entered Central Saint Martins University, University of the Arts London, and at the end of September went to study in London. There, she studies modern art, and she came to Ukraine in December for the winter holidays.

Svitlana is grateful to fate that after the rocket fire she experienced, everything turned out just like that. He says the consequences could have been much worse.

The only thing that surprised her was that she got injured where she least expected it.

– Very unexpected. I have been working with various international media for a long time, since April 2022. I have worked with RAI Radio, RAI TG1, RAI TG3, ANSA, Corriere della Sera, and ZDF. This was my second business trip with ZDF. And it’s such an irony when you go to places where the threat is much greater than some hotel. And it’s quite ironic that it all happened there.

Nataliya Shumak, NUJU Information Service

Photo by Svitlana Dolbysheva

At the request of ZDF, the initial version of the material has been edited.