While Ukrainian forces are enjoying relative success on the battlefield, intensified Russian air assaults on Ukrainian cities are testing resolve on the ground.
By Robert Mulhern, Ukraine War Diaries producer
Saturday 21 January 2023 01:45, UK
For more than two hours last week, Seva Koshel tried to calm his sister, following a Russian rocket attack just yards from her home.
Seva, a Kyiv resident and company executive turned military volunteer, is originally from the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
His sister was at her home in Dnipro on 14 January when a Russian ballistic missile targeted an apartment block nearby.
The attack left 45 people dead and injured dozens more when a section of the apartment block collapsed.
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In the latest episode of the Sky News Ukraine War Diaries podcast, an emotional Seva reflects on the conversation he had with his sister in the aftermath of the attack that has left Ukraine reeling.
“Dnipro is my native city, and my sister lives about 300 metres from the place where the rocket hit the building,” explains the 41-year old, who began recording diaries on his phone for Sky News shortly after the Russian invasion began.
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“It was very difficult to talk to my sister as she [knows] some people who living in this building. Not exactly in the place where there was a rocket, but [in] the same building.
“She [had] to see, for the first time in her life, a lot of dead bodies. And, of course, it’s very difficult [for her] to accept.”
To overcome existing Ukrainian air defence systems, Russia has begun to target the country with ballistic missiles.
For months, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded with Western allies for more advanced weaponry that would help shoot down the missiles.
The US has agreed to supply the powerful Patriot air defence systems, which may help thwart such an attack. But it’s yet to be implemented on the ground.
“[The attack on Dnipro] hit everyone really, really hard just because everyone can relate, because such buildings are very common all across Ukraine,” explains Oksana Koshel, Seva’s wife, who also features in the latest episode.
“The pictures and the videos from the place, they just hit this very sensitive string in everybody’s soul, because you understand that you [could] be next, and the people who you love, your family, [could] find themselves in a similar situation any day.”
From the creators of Sky News’ award-winning StoryCast, Ukraine War Diaries is a weekly podcast following those living on Europe’s new frontline, and those who have escaped it.
Producer: Robert Mulhern
Digital promotion and additional writing: David Chipakupaku
