A new wave of bombing by Russians appearing to target civilians in Ukraine has sparked new outrage.
“The explosion was so strong I heard every one of those. I think starting 8:30 a.m. to 12 a.m. every 20 minutes something exploded really close,” said Yevgeniya Piddubna.
Sitting in the dark in her Kyiv apartment, Piddubna describes the barrage of missiles that hit Ukraine Monday morning killing 19 people and injuring 100 more, most of the victims were civilians -wounded as they started their work day.
“They really aimed at civilians who were out to work to take their kids to kindergarten to school etc.,” said Piddubna.
The bombing happened again Tuesday morning, damaging power supplies and leaving much of Kyiv without electricity.
“This is a new chapter of this war where they are specifically targeting civilians even more than they were before,” said Andy Kurtzig, Arizae Foundation executive director.
Kurtzig heads up a Bay Area based nonprofit foundation aimed at helping Ukraine. He delivered 11 drones to the country and opened a mental health center in Lviv just last week.
He said support is needed now more than ever
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“They need big power generators so people can charge their devices and be able to communicate as well as possible,” said Kurtzig. “Russia is now a terrorist country that’s the best way to describe this. They are terrorizing the country of Ukraine.”
But Piddubna said things are different this time around. Many families are stocked up and prepared to hunker down and are determined not to panic.
“We are not scared anymore,” she said. “This is not the 24th of Feb. We don’t want to run anywhere, we want to stay. We want to fight for Kyiv. We want to fight for Ukraine. This is our spirit. We are not afraid. We want to fight, we want to win, we want this to end because we are really fed up with people dying in the center of Kyiv, in the center of Kharkiv in the center of Mykolaiv just because one old man wants to prove the Soviet Union still exists.”
