Incredible courage: how a man saved two families from the scene of a tragedy in the Dnipro

Iryna Spesivtseva, a 37-year-old resident of Dnipro, recalls the first seconds after the arrival of the Russian missile. I was at home with my seven-year-old son Zakhar:

– I was standing with my back to the window, washing the dishes, and it was my child who came from the kitchen and walked down the hallway and, by some miracle, remained in the hallway at the time of the explosion and survived. And all this reinforcement flew at me – Iryna Spesivtseva, a resident of the destroyed entrance.

Iryna was covered with debris. The woman said she could hardly get them off her body and crawled to her son. She decided to escape through the front door of the apartment:

– I broke down my front door to the entrance and realized that there was no entrance anymore – Iryna Spesivtseva, a resident of the destroyed entrance.

The family found themselves blocked in, as there were iron bars on all the windows and the balcony. In desperation, the woman rushed to the broken window overlooking the courtyard:

– Some people were standing there, and I started shouting, ‘Help us! We can’t get out, and I thought something might explode again. – Iryna Spesivtseva, a resident of the destroyed building.

Yuriy Vasetskyy, 39, heard the screams. He and his colleague happened to be near the building that day.

Yuriy Vasetskyy is a master of sports in horting. It is a Ukrainian form of mixed martial arts. His 12-year-old student and his mother lived in the destroyed entrance on the third floor. Yuriy immediately called the woman, but she was at work. So the man rushed to save the child without hesitation:

– There is no entrance, nothing – I shouted and shouted. But there was no response. Climbing up on the porch visor, I saw a mother and her child standing by the window. They could not get out – Yuriy Vasetskyy, rescue coach.

It was Iryna and Zakhar:

– I tried to pull out the grate by myself, but I didn’t have enough strength. Then the guys came to the rescue – I don’t know their names or where they are from – and we pulled the grate off together. We evacuated the boy. Then we evacuated the mother – she had a bloody face – Yuriy Vasetskyy, rescue trainer

After the family was rescued, Yuriy got to his student Rostyslav:

– Rostik was lucky that they had a niche in their room. The stove fell on top of the stove and then on the wall, and a kind of island was formed – a safety triangle. He was right there. I grabbed him by his clothes and brought him down to the guys. And then they lowered him down. – Yuriy Vasetskyy, rescue coach.

Rostyslav’s mother, 38-year-old Nadiya Yaroshenko, is a pediatric anesthesiologist. A few minutes later, she was already at her son’s side. She says she will never forget his call upon arrival:

– Mom, what to do? The windows! The glass! A flash! There’s an explosion! I can’t breathe! There’s so much dust! Smoke!” And this last phrase was his: “Mom, there are no stairs”. And that’s when the call was interrupted. There was no connection any more – Nadiya Yaroshenko, a resident of the destroyed building.

There was not a single scratch on her son. But after what he had experienced, the mother says, the child needs psychological help:

– He screams at night, and he runs somewhere. I grab him and calm him down. Now he is starting to tell me how he heard the screams, the moaning, what the fire was like. – Nadiya Yaroshenko, a resident of the destroyed entrance.

Nadiia and Iryna are grateful to coach Yuriy for saving them because their families survived thanks to his bravery.

Iryna was diagnosed with a head injury and multiple shrapnel wounds. Her seven-year-old son is unharmed, but he also needs psychological help:

– My son always asks me when we are going to come home. And I say – Son, we will never have this home again… – Iryna Spesivtseva, a resident of the destroyed entrance.

The destroyed entrance where the neighbors lived is likely to be demolished. According to the latest data, 46 people were killed in this Russian terrorist attack.