“Either I get out and we are saved, or we all die here”: the story of Nastia from Ternopil became part of the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation

On November 19, 2025, Nastia was awakened by her mother’s words: “We are being bombed.” Within minutes, Ternopil came under attack from russian cruise missiles and drones. That morning became a tragedy for the city: 38 people were killed, including 8 children, while another 94 were injured. In the attack, Nastia lost her mother, grandfather, and beloved dog. The girl herself suffered deep burns to 15% of her body, with her hands and face sustaining the most severe injuries. Nastia entrusted her story to the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.

When the air raid alert sounded, she hid in the bathroom, then she and her relatives decided to move to a safer place, but they did not even have time to get ready. At that moment, a missile struck their building - the apartment burst into flames. It was no longer possible to escape through the entrance: the stairwell was filled with thick smoke. Trapped in the fire, Nastia kept calling emergency services while everything around her burned.

“We are sitting there burning. My grandmother calls my uncle and says: ‘Volodia, we are burning, we do not know what to do.’ I start crawling into the living room, we were all hoarse from the fumes, and I see my mother crawling after me and simply collapsing into my arms, convulsing. At that moment, I realized this was the end - either I get out and we are saved, or we all die here together,” Nastia recalls that terrifying moment.

In a state of shock, the girl crawled onto the balcony and wanted to jump from the third floor, but at the last moment her grandmother saved her.

“My grandmother suddenly grabbed my sweater and said: ‘No, don’t jump.’ Then I inhaled something and lost consciousness right there on the balcony. According to my grandmother, I hung there unconscious for forty minutes. All that heat burned me badly,” Nastia says.

She regained consciousness only on the third day in a hospital in Lviv. At the time, doctors repeatedly placed her into a medically induced sleep to perform painful bandage changes. Nastia’s burned body hurt so badly that she could not sleep at night at all:

“Every hour and a half, I was in agony. My whole body was burning. Because there were open wounds on my arms and legs. This pain cannot be described in words. I cried and begged for painkillers.”

At first, Nastia was not told about the deaths of her loved ones - only later did she fully realize the loss. That is why it is important for her now to speak about what she endured: this is her way of telling the world the truth about the war in Ukraine.

“I believe all of this must be documented - videos, photographs - to show people abroad that these things are truly happening in Ukraine,” the girl emphasizes.

Today, Nastia continues treatment and is waiting for laser scar resurfacing procedures. She has not lost hope of returning to basketball and is already training to restore flexibility in her arm while continuing to serve as captain of her team. Nastia also studies hard and dreams of becoming a dentist.

Watch Nastia’s story here: https://bit.ly/41kTRni

The collection of the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation already numbers more than 145,000 stories about the war. This is the largest collection in the world of testimonies from civilians affected by russia’s war against Ukraine.