Now the Ukrainian speaks from the selfie video
“It was like a second birthday that I survived”
Alina left her phone on when a Russian bomb fell behind her. The video went around the world. Now she tells the “Bild” newspaper how the video came about and why she wants to stay in Kyiv despite the attacks.
Her selfie video went around the world: 17-year-old Alina filmed the moment a rocket hit a few hundred meters away from her. It was one of more than 100 projectiles that the Russians fired into Kyiv on Monday.
Die «Bild» newspaper was able to locate the young woman and met her at the place where she had shot the video. She was on her way to university on Monday morning when the attacks started. Compared to “Bild” she says: “I just wanted to quickly run into the bomb cellar of the university. I was very scared, I actually only filmed it for my friends. It was like a second birthday for me that I survived.”
she wants to stay
Alina continues: «I was shocked, I forgot that I took the video and thought – okay, I still have my arms and my legs. After that, I immediately called my sister and my parents and told them I was fine and that I was going to the shelter.”
Alina fled to the West at the beginning of the war and lived in Bernau near Berlin until the end of July. She is now back in Kyiv. Despite the bombing, she wants to stay there, as she says to the “Bild” newspaper. «This is our reality, we live like this, we can be killed if we go to work or to university if we are at home. Zaporizhia, Kharkiv – these cities are bombed every day. People experience every day what I experienced here on October 10th.” (gf)