Felt an animal fear: residents of Dnipro about Russian attack with intercontinental missile
On November 21, in the early morning hours, Russia used an intercontinental ballistic missile against Ukraine for the first time, albeit without a warhead. Russia has attacked Ukraine many times before with weapons that can carry a nuclear warhead and has even launched missiles with a simulated nuclear warhead. But the latest attack was special. This missile, which our experts call Rubizh and Putin calls Oreshnik, had a unique sound and visual effect.
We talked to people who were close to the place of the attack.
Crying from despair
Margo Savinska, a resident of Dnipro, one of the biggest cities in Ukraine, was sleeping soundly in a house located quite close to the attack area. Her apartment is on the 13th floor, so the sound was very clear, and it was radically different from everything she had heard before during the shelling, including explosions and the work of our air defense system.
"It was like some kind of giant hailstorm, the purpose of which is to level all life to the ground. The noise was incredible. It was as if some Iskander (another Russian missile Ed.) had flown into a large ammunition depot, and they detonated."
Margo says that her best friend lives even closer to the arrival point than she does. The closer to the epicenter of the events, the more apocalyptic everything looked.
"My friend saw a very bright orange light in her room, and after that, the power went out at home (according to the schedule, the light was supposed to be on). She has two children, twins, they are three years old. The fear in the children's eyes is indescribable," Margo paraphrases her friend's words.
Margo says that her emotional state was very shaken after the shelling. That day, she managed to both laugh at the name of the missile (Putin later made a statement that Russia had used a system called Oreshnik — which means "hazel" in English) and feel intense fear for her life.
"When I saw the news about the repeated threat of this shit in the afternoon, I started crying out of despair. It's a kind of animal fear, the feeling that you are in the crosshairs of a very powerful weapon. That day, I wanted to donate a lot," says Margo.
I turn down the bass, but it doesn't get quieter
Valeriy, a resident of Dnipro who lives far from the explosions, recalls that he did not sleep on the day of the shelling. On November 20, on the eve of the Russians' use of new weapons, the long-awaited game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World was released. So, on the night of the shelling, Valeriy played it.
"At one point, I realized I had to turn the bass down a bit, so I started turning it down, but it didn't get any quieter," Valeriy recalls. At the moment of the shelling, he says, he heard a long sound and then explosions.
"Before I arrived, I heard this long, long hum lasting 5-10 seconds. It seems to me that it was the moment when the ammunition was "gnawing" through the atmosphere. Although the moment when the missiles hit the city was not much different from the others," he says.
Valeriy thought he had heard Ukrainian air defense, but he had some doubts. When he read the news in the morning, everything fell into place. His girlfriend, Bohdana, was sleeping that night but woke up to the sounds. She had a hard time falling back asleep.
"We're so used to it all, I don't even have anything to say," says Bohdana.
How to stop it?
Many people, especially supporters of Ukraine in the West, may think that we should stop this horror and agree to peace with Russia. The problem is that Russia does not want any peace and wants to occupy the whole of Ukraine, and will do so as long as it has the military capability. We saw what the occupation leads to in Bucha and Mariupol. We also know well from history how the Russians dealt with those Ukrainians who sought independence. This includes mass deportations to Siberia and the Holodomor (mass famine in Ukraine), as well as executions.
It is also worth remembering that when the Russians seized the territory in early 2022, they had "liquidation lists" that included very broad categories of citizens, from those who worked for the state or served in the Donbas from 2014 to representatives of creative professions and activists. Russia has practiced the extermination of these categories of citizens in other occupied countries. Therefore, if Russia occupies Ukraine, a million Ukrainians will end up in concentration camps, and hundreds of thousands of civilians will die.
Therefore, Ukraine's supporters around the world should not be frightened by special effects, only consistent military support and a clear explanation that in the event of the use of nuclear weapons, the free world will respond in kind to stop the current horrors in Ukraine.
Read next: What Is the Real Reason Why Russia Is Waging War on Ukraine?
