On the evening of July 31, Veronika Osintseva slept in her bedroom in a western Kyiv neighborhood when a Russian drone struck the building. She awoke on the ground nine stories below and survived despite the fall. A stranger carried her from the rubble. Kyiv police confirmed that she had been thrown out of the apartment and could not explain how she survived. The same bombardment killed 32 people, including her parents who were sleeping in another room. Deadly nights have been common since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Her survival resonated nationally and she embraced a role as a symbol of hope while insisting the killing must end regardless of political negotiations.
I heard a loud noise, and then I woke up in the rubble and I felt the pain,
And at first, I couldn't believe what actually happened to me.
Maybe I have become a kind of symbol of hope and inspiration for others, that it's possible to survive in such difficult circumstances,
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