KATOWICE, Poland: One year after photographs of her bloody face and bandaged head became early symbols of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Olena Kurylo vividly remembers the devastating events of Feb 24, 2022.
A teacher at the time, now a refugee, she dreams of home.
“An explosion jolted me awake at 5am,” said the now 53-year-old who lives in Poland, where millions of Ukrainians have found refuge and help.
“I understood that it was the beginning of the end,” she told AFP from an apartment hotel in the southern Polish city of Katowice, recalling day one of the invasion.
The first missile struck an airstrip at a military base 500 metres from her home in Chuguiv, near Kharkiv, in the northeast of Ukraine. The second demolished her apartment.
“I was on the sofa when I heard a loud noise and saw the window shatter against the wall. Then the pieces hit me,” she said, describing a moment she has replayed in her head in slow motion time and time again.
“After I got covered in broken glass, there was total silence for, like, 10 seconds. Then I heard the cries of the wounded,” she recalled.
“For a fraction of a second, the thought crossed my mind that I wasn’t ready to die, not right now.”
Outside, she was treated by medics, who removed a large shard of glass from her head. Nearby a boy lay dead, his father in tears – a scene she said she will never forget.
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