THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
Russian Shaheds UAV attack overnight into December 22, 2023, brought grief and despair to many Ukrainian families. In Kyiv, one of the UAVs hit the apartment of the famous Ukrainian TV presenter, Andrii Kovalskyi.
At the time of the attack, the journalist’s entire family was at home – his wife, Tetiana Khytryk, and two minor children. In an interview with the information service of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), Andrii Kovalskyi tells the details of the extraordinary event.
“The whole apartment was in this smoke in a second”
“My wife was sitting on this sofa; I was in my room, and the children were also in their rooms. At some point, the wife simply heard that terrible Shahed sound. She turned to the window and saw that one of them was flying right towards her. She noticed it and, in an instance, ran out of here and ran to cover a child, as this wall would not help as it is made of plasterboard. There is our son’s bedroom. She covered the son with herself, and at that moment, an explosion rang out,” says Andrii Kovalskyi.
The journalist recalls how his home caught fire and got filled with smoke and a strong stench.
“I ran out of the room, saw broken windows, a pile of glass. The ceiling was burnt. There was just such a bright fire and hot air with smelly smoke because something that stinks and burns poured out of ерфе drone,” continues Andrii. “It stinks so much that I couldn’t breathe; it stinks to the point of vomiting. The whole apartment was engulfed in this smoke in a second. And it’s good that my wife gathered herself quickly, shouted to me: “Take the children out.”
A fire extinguisher, which was a gift from friends for the housewarming, helped. At the time of receiving the gift, no one could have thought that it would one day come in handy, even under such circumstances.
“We always joked and laughed. Well, who has those fire extinguishers? And people said: “What is that fire extinguisher for?” It stood there for several years. And then it turned out that this fire extinguisher saved lives, well, at least from crazy consequences,” says the journalist. “Because it was the actions of my wife Tetiana that prevented the fire from spreading. While I was taking the children out, she found this fire extinguisher, figured out how to use it, and extinguished the flames, which had already spread to the sofa and carpet. Firefighters arrived 20 minutes later, but they entered with the words: “Have you extinguished everything yourself already?” Tatiana saved not only our apartment. I think she saved half the house because the fire was very, very terrible.
“It is very gratifying that our journalistic community has not remained indifferent”
Now, the family of journalists has completely changed its attitude to fire safety. When the apartment is restored after the destruction, first of all, it will be equipped with fire extinguishers.
“I plan to recharge this fire extinguisher and maybe buy a few more. Because it should now be in every apartment, in every house, in every car, and preferably not just one,” says Andrii.
The media workers’ apartment is currently not suitable for living. The windows were broken, the walls tilted, the ceiling and furniture were burnt. The couple is waiting for the commission’s decision on the likelihood and cost of restoring the apartment.
“We still cannot even fathom what amount will be needed for restoration. Because in order to understand it, you have to take everything apart. But we can’t do anything until a final decision is made on the apartment. How to restore it? Is it possible to restore? Because there is serious damage there above us, and until it is eliminated, we cannot fully restore our apartment. We prefer not to think about it now. We are now living with friends. They gave us their house outside the city, and we are there with our children in relative safety, the journalist says.
Andrii‘s children are of primary school age: son Nazar is eight years old, and daughter Polina is six years old. For them, that shelling did not pass without a trace – the little one went through a lot of stress.
“The children were scared. Psychologists work with the children now as the children are very young, Six and eight years old. We protected them as much as we could. They were sleepy, and we covered them. They didn’t see it, but they know that Putin bombed our apartment, that we have nowhere to live, that the russians are enemies. They say that there are no irreversible consequences, it is necessary to work in a playful manner, and I think that everything will be fine,” says Andrii.
Andrii Kovalskyi began to receive words of support and financial assistance for the restoration of his home from his colleagues from the first hours after the incident. The NUJU also joined the collection of funds – from the special emergency aid fund of its network of Journalists’ Solidarity Centers, financial aid was allocated to the affected family of media workers.
“And it is very gratifying that our journalistic community did not remain indifferent to this situation. My journalist friends probably all wrote me words of support, and many of them supported me materially,” says Andrii Kovalskyi. “It is very nice that even the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine responded and came to help. I am very grateful to everyone; that’s why it was unexpectedly pleasant that people, Ukrainians, are not indifferent to other people’s troubles.”
“There is not a single safe place in Ukraine today”
Now, the couple of media workers are trying to look optimistically into the future and consider it fortunate that none of the family members and neighbors were injured that night.
“We had anxiety. But, you know, like probably many people, we watched drones fly. Well, drones are apparently not the biggest danger. Because our guys shoot down drones and shoot down a lot of them, we went to the shelter when there was a threat of ballistics, Kinzhal [missiles], when missiles were flying. And when it comes to drones, somehow, they treated it a little lightly. But now, it will definitely not be like that because, thank God, we are all alive, we are all unharmed, only property was damaged. And therefore, perhaps this is an unnecessary reminder that there is no safe place in Ukraine, and one must be as careful as possible. Because the damn russians are insidious, it attacks civilian infrastructure and residential buildings,” says Andrii Kovalskyi. “We see that in recent days, just how many civilian houses have been destroyed in Ukraine, how many civilians have died who just live in ordinary houses. Therefore, when the alarm sounds now, as it did today – we go to the shelter, we already have such a feeling of panic. Despite the fact that we understood that nothing was flying towards Kyiv, we read Telegram channels, but we no longer trust anything because there is no safe place in Ukraine now. Absolutely. Even if they do not write that something is heading somewhere, it can be there. As it happened to us.”
NUJU has prepared an English-language video report on the assistance provided by the network of Journalists’ Solidarity Centers to victims of russian attacks
NUJU Information Service
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