Through the smoke and dust still hanging in the air, Ukrainian General Oleksandr Volobuiev hurriedly walked, clutching a small body wrapped in his military coat to his chest. From the coat, two pink shoes protruded. The photograph captured at that moment has gone around the world — an image of despair, but also of courage, on a day when Kharkiv once again experienced the horror of war, writes BBC.
The “Honey Academy” kindergarten in the Holodnohirski district of Kharkiv had been directly hit by a Russian Shahed drone. In the shelter beneath the building were 48 children. None were injured. But not due to luck — but thanks to those who entered the flames to get them out.
“We knew there were children there”
“We received the call that a kindergarten had been hit. We knew there would be children there, so we left immediately. You can’t stand still in such moments”, says Oleksandr Volobuiev, commander in the Ukrainian Emergency Situations Service.
What followed was a series of interventions at the limit. The walls cracked under the vibration of the explosions, and the fire gradually engulfed the building. Volobuiev and his team managed to reach the basement, where the little ones had taken shelter at the sound of the sirens.
“When I took the little girl in my arms, I only felt that small weight and the warmth of a child clinging to me. Otherwise, nothing. No noise, no fear. Everything stopped for a moment,” he recounts.
The photograph of him holding the child, taken in the midst of the mission, quickly became the symbol of a country defending not only its fronts, but also its future.
“She didn’t cry. She just looked straight into my eyes”
Among the rescuers was also Fedir Uhnenko, spokesperson for the Civil Protection Service. Usually, his role is to talk about missions, not to participate in them. But this time, he says, “there was no other choice”.
“When I went down to the basement, I saw the horror in the children’s eyes. Some were in the arms of their teachers, others were crying silently. The fire was above, and the roof was collapsing,” he recalls.
He picked up a little boy. He carried him through the smoke and rubble, holding him as tight as he could. “I kept telling him that it’s okay, that we’re going towards the light. He didn’t make a sound. He just held me very tight. I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
A camera mounted on Fedir’s helmet captured the entire intervention. The images were then broadcast in the international press — faces covered in dust, people carrying children, smoke, fire, and sirens.
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