‘Thank God I’m alive:’ A Russian attack tore open this Ukrainian neighborhood, but residents quickly scrambled to pick up the pieces

• Russia attacked the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro with drones and missiles early Monday.
• The attack heavily damaged one neighborhood. Residents quickly moved to clear apartments of debris.
• Dnipro is the latest city to be heavily targeted by Russian strikes.

DNIPRO, Ukraine — Olha Melnychenko heard explosions around 4 a.m. as Russian attack drones circled above the city and the air raid sirens wailed.

“I was sitting and eating in my kitchen, and I saw a flash and something exploded,” she recalled. Russian missile fire and falling debris had struck the residential area.

The blast blew out Melnychenko’s front door and windows, trapping the 70-year-old inside until rescuers reached her. A girl who lived below her was less fortunate. She was severely wounded, one of nearly two dozen people injured across the city in the bombardment.

“My grandson called me and asked me how I was. What was I supposed to tell him?” Melnychenko said, tears in her eyes, speaking in the stairwell outside a relative’s apartment in a nearby building. The unit had been completely charred by fire, leaving a heavy burnt smell in the corridor. ‘Thank God, I’m alive,” she said.

The Russian military launched more than 540 ballistic and cruise missiles and drones at Ukraine in a large-scale attack that began late Sunday night and lasted several hours into Monday morning. Kyiv said that the bombardment mainly targeted the southeastern city of Dnipro and its surrounding region.

The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 96% of the Russian drones fired in the attack, but only 18% of the missiles. An Air Force spokesperson said that a cruise missile hit Melnychenko’s part of Dnipro and debris from the interceptions also fell in the area, causing additional damage.

In neighborhoods struck by Russian attacks, recovery often begins before the shock has worn off. Residents and volunteers move quickly to clear the immediate hazards, cover exposed windows, and make damaged homes safe enough to stay in while the longer repair work waits.

Business Insider visited Melnychenko’s neighborhood late Monday morning and found the residents already trying to make their damaged homes livable again and salvage what they could of businesses — sweeping glass from the streets, hauling rubble out of apartments, and throwing ruined books from windows. Volunteers handed out sheets of plywood so that people could cover the blown-out windows, reducing exposure to the elements.

Dmytro, a specialist with the Ukrainian humanitarian mission known as “Proliska” who asked to be identified only by his first name, said that the neighborhood suffered the worst damage of any in Dnipro during the attack, with dozens of buildings taking hits.

The explosions tore through a small first-floor market in one of the buildings. Its owner said she had already lost her first store and a warehouse earlier in the war. Inside the wreckage, some soda cans still stood upright in a refrigerated case, untouched amid the damage.

Petro Barsuk, a student who lives across the street, said that he was sheltering in the hallway behind several walls — a common precaution against shrapnel — when the windows shattered and sent glass flying into his family’s apartment.

Eighteen-year-old Barsuk said he was shocked in the aftermath to see his apartment full of rubble and described the Russian attack as the worst that his neighborhood has experienced in more than four years of full-scale war.

He said that he hopes the government will provide new windows for his unit, but everything else lost in the attack — much of it in the kitchen — will have to be replaced by his family.

Local authorities said at least 22 people were injured in the attack on Dnipro, the latest in a string of attacks over the past week.

Last Wednesday, Russia launched more than 700 drones into Ukraine over multiple waves across the day before firing hundreds more — and nearly 60 cruise and ballistic missiles — overnight. The massive attack killed 24 people in Kyiv and injured dozens of others.

Ukraine retaliated overnight Saturday with hundreds of drones launched into Russia, including toward Moscow, Kyiv’s SBU internal security agency said. The strikes hit a facility that makes weapons technology, an oil refinery, and a pumping station, the SBU said. Several people were reported killed and injured.