The strikes have unnerved everyone in the city. There was a loud rumble inside the kitchen where Balasynovych sat on Monday for an interview, flanked by her staff and a team of heavily armed guards. She froze, her breathing ceased, her eyes widened, and her back straightened like a board.
“Is it…?” she asked in a low voice, concerned that it might be another missile attack.
The sound was just the industrial dishwasher thumping along.
Just as the interview was coming to a close, Melnyk received a call about a group of Russian saboteurs that local volunteers had allegedly caught and killed at a checkpoint. Balasynovych threw on a bulletproof vest for what she said was the first time in her life and drove to the site, inviting BuzzFeed News along. “I want to look him in the eye and talk to him,” she said.
While en route, though, she received a call from the National Guard forbidding a visit to the site.
Balasynovych said the war has changed her city. “When people always wished each other peace and health, we didn’t know what it meant,” she said. “Now we know.”
Hours after BuzzFeed News left Vasylkiv, there were loud explosions heard emanating from the area. Surface-to-air missiles were seen shooting through the sky over the city, signs that peace was still a long way off. Olha Klochko, another adviser to Balasynovych, said the Russians were back at it.
“Right now we are being bombarded with rockets,” she said.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/christopherm51/ukraine-war-2022-russia-missiles-vasylkiv
