As Russian forces pushed toward Kyiv, they stormed an apartment complex in a nearby suburb and held residents hostage. The New York Times spoke with seven people who escaped and obtained security camera footage and videos from witnesses.
“It was really scary,” said Lesya Borodyuk, a 49-year-old resident, tearing up at one point as she spoke. “I wrote to my daughter. I was saying goodbye to her. I told her that probably we will be bombed now.”
The soldiers made around 200 residents stay, holding many of them hostage in the basements of their own buildings, forcing them to hand over their phones and taking over their apartments. Others were able to avoid detection but still were essentially prisoners in their own homes as Russian forces moved into the buildings, which had housed 560 families, and took up sniping positions.