Veronika Osintseva says she has no idea how she walked away with just a fractured leg, a chipped tooth and some bruises. Hanna Palamarenko for NPR hide caption
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Hanna Palamarenko for NPR
On the evening of July 31, Veronika Osintseva went to sleep in her bedroom at her family’s apartment in a western neighborhood in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
When she drifted off she did not know a Russian drone would strike the building and that she would wake up on the ground — nine stories down.
Somehow, she lived. A stranger carried her from the rubble.
“I heard a loud noise, and then I woke up in the rubble and I felt the pain,” Osintseva told NPR’s Leila Fadel in a recent interview. “And at first, I couldn’t believe what actually happened to me.”
The Kyiv police confirmed to the New York Times that she had been thrown out of the apartment because of an explosion but could not explain how she lived through it.
That same night, Russian bombardment killed 32 people, including Osintseva’s parents, who were sleeping in another room.
Deadly nights in the Ukrainian capital have been all too common since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Miraculous tales of survival have been rare.
That may explain why Osintseva’s story has captivated the war-weary nation and made her a sudden celebrity — a status that she has embraced.
“Maybe I have become a kind of symbol of hope and inspiration for others, that it’s possible to survive in such difficult circumstances,” she said.
Osintseva spoke to NPR’s Morning Edition on the same day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, along with a host of European leaders, met with President Trump at the White House. The meeting followed Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, after which Trump began pushing for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine — one that would not include a ceasefire, a position long held by Putin.
But Osintseva was uninterested in the meeting because after 11 years of war and tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians dead, she says it’s time for the killing to end. And she doesn’t care what it takes.
The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Leila Fadel: Take me back to that night. Just walk me through what happened to you.
Veronika Osintseva: I started shouting and the man heard me — his name was Slava — and he carried me out in his hands, out of the rubble. Then I was taken to the hospital and while I was being carried there, I didn’t know what was going to be next for me. I only had a pack of cigarettes with me and a blanket. I didn’t know how to live from then on, and I actually still cannot believe that I survived. I’m recalling the images and it’s just unreal.
Fadel: Veronika, I know that you did lose your parents in that same attack. They’ve been sleeping in another room and I’m very sorry for your loss. If you could tell me when you understood that you survived, but they didn’t and many other people in that building didn’t.
Osintseva: So I actually found out that they didn’t survive even before I was told so, because I just stopped feeling their presence. And when I was told that they’re gone, I thought it was just impossible to survive there. I don’t know how I survived.
Fadel: Why do you think what happened to you has made so many people stand up and pay attention?
Osintseva: Maybe I have become a kind of symbol of hope, an inspiration for others that it’s possible to survive in such difficult circumstances. And maybe they feel that. And I’m ready to live on and be happy and to fight for happiness.
Fadel: Who’s with you? Your parents aren’t with you anymore. I mean, who’s supporting you and helping you?
Osintseva: All of my friends are with me and all of the friends of my parents and all of Ukraine are with me, and so I’m not alone. I’m with people.
Fadel: And when you heal and you’re out of the hospital. What happens next for you?
Osintseva: I’m going to be building my life in reality around me with the ones who are close to me. So it will be comfortable for me and safe.
Fadel: How do you feel as a Ukrainian seeing the meeting between Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. What might it mean for your future?
Osintseva: Honestly, I don’t care. I just want it all to stop. I want people to stop killing. I want people to start building their own happiness. I don’t care how it’s going to happen, the ending of the war. But it could be the appeal of this girl who fell out of the ninth floor and survived. To the world leaders, please, stop it. We just want to live and to build our own happiness. We want to build our own lives as we want in security.
The broadcast version of this story was produced by Lindsay Totty and edited by Lisa Thomson. Hanna Palamarenko assisted with interpretation from Kyiv and Anton Loboda assisted with interpretation from Washington D.C. Voice over work was performed by Olga Khakova.
