A Russian air strike on Kramatorsk (Donetsk oblast) on 24 August damaged the flat of Maksym Khodushko, a journalist with the news website Kramatorsk Post. The blast wave warped the window frames and damaged the barrier between his balcony and a neighbour’s loggia, Khodushko reported in a Facebook post and to Yulia Harkusha, the Institute of Mass Information’s representative in Donetsk oblast.
The journalist said this was the first time his flat had been damaged by shelling, though he had expected this would happen.
“Guided aerial bombs keep dropping on Kramatorsk. And it’s really frightening,” Maksym Khodushko said.
The journalist was in the bathroom at the moment of the strike. He said he heard several loud explosions, then items started falling from the shelves.
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“Really loud explosions — I counted two, but there were more bombs than that. The bathtub shook, things fell off the shelves. That hadn’t happened before. I looked at one side of the flat: everything was fine there. I looked at the other: it was all white haze from the strike,” the journalist said.
He explained that several aerial bombs had struck old two- and three-storey buildings across the street. In a neighbouring nine-storey building, the utilities floor and part of the top floor were destroyed.
“A lovely green courtyard has turned into a heap of rubbish. A few of my window frames got warped too, and the barrier between my balcony and the neighbour’s loggia was broken. No one’s lived next door for ages. The owner died years ago, and the place last had tenants a year ago. All the windows there that could be blasted out, were,” Khodushko noted.
The journalist documented the aftermath of the strike and reported the damage to the police. Acquaintances from a volunteer organisation helped him board up the damaged structures and windows.
On 17 August, Maksym Khodushko reported that he had had to evacuate his elderly parents due to the deteriorating safety situation in the city.
As reported earlier, Russian strikes have damaged the home of journalist and editor Andriy Hryn three times, as well as the offices of two Kramatorsk-based news outlets, Novyny Kramatorskoho Rayonu and Novyny Kramatorska.