On the night of Saturday to Sunday, a Russian attack took place on a hotel in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine. Two journalists were injured, a third was found under the rubble, said the head of the Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin. Among the injured was also a Polish volunteer, Monika Andruszewska. “My first personal blood shed for Ukraine,” she wrote on social media, publishing photos after the Iskander strike.
“Russians struck Kramatorsk at night. The next target in the city was a hotel – so far, we know of two wounded, and one person is under the rubble,” said Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk region authorities, on Telegram. He emphasized that all three people were journalists. Filashkin said that they came from USAGreat Britain and Ukrainehowever, there were also reports on social media that Polish journalist Monika Andruszewska was among the injured. The reporter confirmed this information on her Facebook.
First blood for Ukraine
“My first personal blood shed for Ukraine – just in time for Independence Day,” she wrote in the post.
“After 10 years of war. Iskander right next to me. The tattoo on my right hand, where I have cornflowers intertwined with an ear of grain, not coincidentally in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, has been slightly cut,” we read.
Andruszewska attached two photos to the entry: a destroyed car and herself with a bloody hand.
“This is a photo of someone who was simply driving through Kramatorsk in the evening, and the second one shows the inside of their car. This is what any possible person could look like, anywhere in Ukraine, wherever the Russians decide to strike with a missile. Not on the front line – just in a city in the Donetsk region, where, despite Russia's genocidal actions, life still goes on, cafes and beauty salons are open, children play in playgrounds. You're just driving around the city. You're just living. You're just breathing. For the Russians, this is enough to try to kill you and hit you with an Iskander right next to the road you're driving on, and by the way, over a civilian object located about 20 meters away,” she reported.
“I'll dress the cuts, they're minor. I'll fix the tattoo. I'll pull the glass out of my hair and hand. The car is too bad, new windows will be installed, after all, it's not the first time,” she added. She wrote that she will continue to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As “Gazeta Wyborcza”, which spoke to Andruszewska after the attack, wrote, she reports war in Ukraine since 2014
“She wrote for, among others, 'Tygodnik Powszechny'. After the Russian aggression in 2022, her accounts can only be read on Facebook, while she herself is involved in documenting Russia's war crimes on the territory of Ukraine and providing assistance to the Ukrainian army. In March 2022, she saved 30 fugitives from Irpin who found themselves under fire. She works at the Raphael Lemkin Center for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine at the Pilecki Institute,” we read.
Kramatorsk is the largest city Donbas under the control of Ukrainian forces repelling the attacks of the occupiers. It lies about 20 km west of the front line. Filashkin said in a separate Telegram message that seven people died in the Donetsk region over the past 24 hours: five in Konstantynovka, and one each in the city of Toretsk and the village of Kotlyne. 15 people were injured.
Main image source: Monika Andruszewska/Facebook