Valentyna Hryniak. Photo: Ihor Cherepanskyi
Посилання скопійовано
Valentyna Hryniak, an 86-year-old resident of an apartment block on 8 Stusa Street in the city of Ternopil, is still considered missing after a Russian missile struck the building on 19 November. Her body has not been found under the rubble.
Source: Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne, citing the woman’s great-grandson Ihor Cherepanskyi
Details: Ihor said his great-grandmother’s one-room flat was the epicentre of the strike, and only the walls remain. On the day he learned of the attack, he repeatedly tried to reach her by phone, as access to the flat was impossible.
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Quote: “When I came here early that first morning, everything was a blur. I managed to reach almost the fourth floor. Everything was buried under debris – it has been cleared now. The upper stairwells had collapsed, you could see everything had shifted. And I was calling from here. There was still soot and smoke. Even now, looking at it, there’s still no full understanding of what happened.
The phone kept ringing for half a day, and then we were taken out because emergency workers arrived. We could no longer get inside, but the ringing continued. Standing here, I could hear the ringtone. So the phone must have been thrown somewhere by the blast wave. But everything was chaotic.”
Details: Valentyna lived on the fifth floor. Almost nothing is left of the flat except the entrance door, its frame, and the wall of the bathroom.
Quote: “I’ve just noticed that the lock was closed and the key was broken off from the inside. So she definitely hadn’t gone anywhere, because these are her doors. In fact, she must have been in the flat at that moment.
If everything had started suddenly and chaotically, she wouldn’t have thought twice – she would have run. But the door is closed. And it’s a fact that the key was broken due to the explosion.”
Details: Ihor suggested that at the moment of the strike his great-grandmother was in the room. He said Valentyna had a favourite sofa on which she slept.
“She could also have been on the bed. I am worried that this was exactly the epicentre. The firefighters said that only half a bed leg was left and nothing else,” Ihor added.
Valentyna worked as a teacher at a children’s creative centre. She loved communicating with people and was sincere, cultured and friendly. She easily found common ground with others and was wise and well-read.
Quote: “This was my great-grandfather’s second wife, as my biological great-grandmother had passed away when I was still very young. Both she and my great-grandfather retired, found common ground, and got married. Since then, we have kept in touch, remained friends and helped each other.
In 2018, my great-grandfather passed away. He had asked me not to forget Valentyna and to support her. That’s how we stayed in contact. We brought her food from the village and shared it equally. She delighted in everything. If you brought preserves, it was already a celebration for her. We had genuine support and heartfelt relations.”
Details: Valentyna’s body has still not been found at the site of her apartment. Law enforcement continues to search for remains in the debris that was removed from the city.
On the third day after the strike, emergency workers recovered the fuselage and engine of the missile from the room where her bed had been.
The room where the fuselage and missile engine were found.
Photo: Ihor Cherepanskyi
Quote: “According to DNA tests, there is still no confirmation of a match with her nephew. So, at the moment, there is no understanding of what happened. She was always with her cat; if at least its body or remains, even a paw, had been found, I would have known that her body was somewhere. But neither she nor the cat nor the apartment remain. Everything seemed to vanish in an instant, simply disappeared.”
Background:
On the night of 18-19 November, Russian forces carried out a combined attack on several Ukrainian cities; explosions were reported in Khmelnytskyi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivne, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
In Ternopil, a block of flats was destroyed. Ukraine’s Air Force reported that the block of flats was hit by Russian Kh-101 cruise missiles.
The strike killed 36 people, including children, and injured nearly 100 residents. Police say five people, including one child, are still missing.
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