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A Ukrainian civilian volunteering as an emergency response worker arrived at the scene of the latest Russian attacks on Kyiv Monday only to realize it was the same apartment complex she helped repair after another strike just a month ago.
“It’s a strange feeling because, you know, you always have hope everything is going to be okay,” 45-year-old Kateryna Tereshkova told CBS News. “Usually it can be in one district, but different addresses. But here, it’s absolutely the same location.”
Residents who she had already met responding to attacks in June greeted her with dark humor.
“People who come to us, they say, ‘Ah, we remember you. You fixed it already on my balcony, but now I don’t have apartments anymore,'” she said. “But, you know, the sense of humor is the main root of our nation.”
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Monday’s barrage killed at least 22 people in the capital of Kyiv and the surrounding region, Ukrainian officials said. The strikes further exposed gaps in Ukraine’s air defenses and its reliance on U.S. Patriot systems to intercept ballistic missiles.
Russia has increased attacks on Kyiv in retaliation for Ukraine’s recent long-range strikes, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Tereshkova said her team had barely finished responding to Russia’s strikes four days earlier when Monday’s attack happened.
“We just had one and a half days for sleeping,” she said. “We’re still feeding firefighters who were trying to fix the fuel station from the attack four days ago.”
A former executive in Kyiv’s restaurant and nightlife industry, Tereshkova has volunteered since Russia first invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014, making it her full-time work after the full-scale invasion in 2022.
“It’s an algorithm now. It’s the same every time,” she said of the response after an attack. “Usually the kind of help is cleaning all the destruction inside the apartments, taking off the broken windows or balcony doors, and using plastic film and wooden panels … We do the option that will be helpful for people to live in normal circumstances before they have the payments from the government to get new windows.”
Tereshkova said that some nights she needs to return to one of her old nightclubs to blow off steam but that she remains committed to her work helping people in the aftermath of attacks.
“I feel tired sometimes, but I don’t know how it’s working for me. I think it’s like my destiny and my way because I’m not burning inside. I don’t let my hands fall down. I’m always ready to continue,” she said.
“I just need, from time to time, to have some sleep,” she added. “After that, okay, let’s go.”