[ Source: BBC News ]
The home of Ukrainian Eurovision contestant Khrystyna Starykova has been destroyed by Russian shelling in the city of Myrnograd.
The 19-year-old is currently in Switzerland rehearsing for her performance with the band Ziferblat, but posted photos of her damaged apartment block in the Sviltly neighbourhood.
“Home. And I dreamed so much of returning home,” she captioned the post, which showed the building shrouded in smoke, with its windows blown out and several balconies collapsed.
“Fortunately, all my relatives and friends are alive and well,” she said, and vowed to perform at Eurovision next week “for the sake of our country”.
In an interview with Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne, Starykova said she had almost anticipated the destruction of her home.
“Four months ago, my grandmother lost her home – it was just such a big hole,” she said. “Then my aunt lost the roof over her head.
“I understood that maybe I could be the next one and, unfortunately, it happened. It’s very terrible news. I had really hoped to go back.”
The singer’s home is less than five miles from the frontline, near the industrial city of Pokrovsk, a key battleground on Ukraine’s eastern front.
In a new Instagram post on Tuesday morning, she shared further footage of Myrnograd’s bomb-damaged streets.
“I always went home from vocal lessons this way,” she wrote in the caption. “It was my favourite way home.”
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