Even Povernkov was standing in a line of police tape, which separated the public from intensive search and rescue operations around their building.

He survived his apartment in a suburb of Ukrainian capital Kiev. His windows had disappeared, on the verge of his balcony collapse.

Below, personal belongings were scattered on the way. Bedsheets and towels were hung from the branches of trees.

A cruise missile slammed the Solomansky in this ordinary residential block in the neighborhood in the early hours of Tuesday morning, probably about 500 meters per hour. The explosion destroyed 35 apartments and hollowed out a whole part of the building.

By Wednesday afternoon, 23 people were found dead in the debris. Across Ukraine, at least 30 were known to be killed in attacks, but two of them in two keves.

The Ukraine’s Air Force stated that an aerial attack on the Poverancov’s building was one of a huge wave sent by Russia – a total of over 440 drones and 32 missiles, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

The barrage broke the capital for nine hours, from midnight till last morning. It was one of the worst attacks on Kiev since the entire -scale invasion of Ukraine began on a full scale.

43 -year -old warehouse activist, Povernkov, looked down from his debris apartment. His face was cut and all were grazed and he had severe blood in one eye. He could not see it out of it.

He was in bed when the missile was hit, he said. His elderly mother was sleeping in the next room.

“He had heat, fire and smoke,” he said, remembering a huge impact just a meter away from his wall. “I lost consciousness. When I came, I heard my mother shouting.”

Neighbors helped Powrankov to take out their ward door and get their mother’s mother. Other remaining people were emerging in the remains of the broken building.

“People were screaming, children were crying,” said 60 -year -old pensioner Arcadi Volrench. “It was a total chaos.”

Outside, the residents tried to find a safe route through burning cars and falling debris.

“Everything was on fire,” a teacher, 69, a teacher said. “Fuel tanks in cars were exploding. With pieces of concrete and tiles, putting broken glass on top.”

Pavarenkov’s mother was taken for intensive care, he said, with two broken collarbones, her eyes cut and her internal organs suffer severe damage that requires surgery.

She was one of the over 100 injured in the city. At the midnight, the 12th Kiev City Clinical Hospital’s anesthesiologist and director Seri Dabarov felt that the attacks had started.

He said that within hours, his hospital would get 27 patients.

“They had soft tissue injuries, damaged glass, blood vessels damaged. Painful brain injuries and internal chest injuries. One had a serious feeth artery – we were able to repair it. The worst woman was with an open head injury.

“These are types of injuries that we see from this type of attacks.”

He said that Dr. Dabarov’s hospital ranged from 18 to 95. Three were in their 90s. Such attacks on residential buildings can be particularly dangerous for the elderly and weakness, which cannot easily flatter for an underground shelter.

A 64 -year -old disabled man could not make it for the shelter, Olacksandra Bonderchuk, whose apartment was also close to the impact point. He said that he lay down on the bed.

An hour after the attack, Bondchuk was slowly able to make its way down. “It was terrible,” he said. “Everything was destroyed.”

Some of them whose apartments were severely damaged were able to find shelter with friends or relatives. Others were not so lucky. “All this is with me,” Bondchuk said.

Strikes killed Ukraine as President, Volodimier Zelanski, traveling to the G7 conference in Canada to meet world leaders. Some in Ukraine suspect that time was deliberate – a cruel message from Russia.

The attack scale outlined the strict need for Ukraine’s international support, including an increase in air security. But in the end, it will prove to be a failed day for Zelansky.

His much -awaited bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump evaporated as the strikes were taking place when Trump announced that he would leave the conference early amid the crisis in the Middle East.

With not appearing Trump, a meeting of European leaders on Ukraine failed to make a joint statement of support for the country-a statement that was too much for the Ukrainian side.

As Zelancesi traveled home from Canada on Wednesday, people around the Solomansky neighborhood gathered to place flowers on the site of the cruise missile attack in the south-west.

The police did not allow Ivan Pavarenkov to pass the tape line to recover their mother’s property from their scattered apartments, so he was just stood up and staring. A hundred feet away, emergency workers found two more bodies in the rubble.

They did not know how much they would find, they said.

Anastasia Levchenko contributed to this report. Photos by Joel Gunter.