BBC journalist reveals family home in Kyiv bombed in Russian air strikes

A BBC journalist has revealed the apartment building in Ukraine where her family lived was partially destroyed in Russian air strikes.

During a live broadcast discussing the situation in the country, Olga Malchevska confirmed the multi-storey block hit by a Russian rocket in the early hours of Friday morning was her family home in the capital Kyiv.

In an interview with BBC World News anchor Karin Giannone, Malchevska said: “When we agreed about coming to the studio in the morning I could not imagine that actually at 3am London time I would find out that actually my home is bombed.

“I have just got a message from my mum, finally, I couldn’t reach her.

“She has been taking shelter, she is hiding in the basement and luckily she was not in our building, which was bombed at night.”

Fearing a Russian attack, many of the capital’s residents took shelter deep underground in metro stations on Thursday evening.

In the early hours of Friday morning, several explosions were heard in different parts of the city and air raid sirens also went off.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that at least three people were injured when a rocket hit a multi-storey apartment building, starting a fire.

Malchevska said: “Those pictures, that footage that everybody saw is literally my home and people were vacated into the school where I started, thank god my family is safe.

“We are seeing a brigade coming to help, we are seeing the streets of Kyiv, this actual building is my home.

“I was living on the sixth floor. I just can’t link in my head that what I am seeing is actually somewhere where I used to live.”