Myla, 18-20 Sportyvna St.

STORY

Residential Compound Myli Kvartyry is located in Kyiv’s suburbs, along the Zhytomyr Highway. The cozy and relatively inexpensive apartments were extremely popular among young Ukrainian families. 

During the attempt to seize Kyiv, the highway was subject to enemy shelling. In early March, the upper floor of the building at 18 Sportyvna Street was hit by a Grad MRLS shell. The explosion started a fire. Residents attempted to fight the flames through their own efforts, while under artillery fire. They carried buckets of water, brought a water tanker, used hoses, but everything was in vain. On that fatal day, the strong wind was blowing, so the fire quickly spread to stories 6-7. 

All second level apartments burned down, and the sewerage utilities were destroyed by the fire down to the very bottom. 

However, on April 7th, immediately after the clearance issued by the local military administration, all residents, who had previously evacuated to safer regions of Ukraine, returned back home. They cleared the debris, broken glass and reinforcement bars by first carrying them on their shoulders, and then lowering them by  rope from floor 6 to floor 1. People did everything they could to help save their homes — at least a little bit of what was left. 

Viktoria, a resident of a nearby apartment block, recalls how the apartment windows in the building slowly started to light up. She recalls having her eyes filled with the tears of happiness when she saw the first lit window in an apartment on the floor 5, which once seemed totally unsuitable for living. 

“My first thought when I saw the damage after the occupation was – “why?”. But when people started to return, and this dark mutilated building slowly returned back to life, it was an incredible feeling. My eyes were filled with tears.”