"A Homeless Person’s Problem": Kyiv resident on housing after UAV attack
21 November 2025 18:40"The thing is, I don't have a home.” A few minutes later, these words are no longer just a line from a song; charred walls create a new reality as firefighters trudge through your home, tossing melted belongings out of the windows.
The Zaslavsky family’s flat was on the first floor of an ordinary multi-storey building in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district. On 14 November, debris from a Shahed drone fell into the courtyard of their residential building.
According to the Kyiv City State Administration, two residential buildings were damaged as a result of the falling debris.
What ‘lucky’ looks like
“They told me later that it wasn’t the whole drone, but a part of the Shahed. It flew from the flat into the kitchen, breaking through the wall between us and our neighbours. We were lucky that the impact didn’t hit the far bedroom—if it had, I wouldn’t be alive today. My younger son was in the room next to the one where the Shahed fragment landed, and he is now in intensive care. He was also lucky to be behind a load-bearing wall. It didn’t collapse, but Misha was injured by fragments of glass and by the section of the wall that the Shahed blew down,” Arkady Zaslavsky recalls of that night.
Photos of the damaged building spread across Kyiv’s news feeds. A rescuer stands in the window of the destroyed kitchen. The blast wave blew out all the windows and doors, frames included.
Arkady suffered head and ear injuries that required stitches. He says he felt nothing for the next 24 hours, moving on autopilot, fuelled by adrenaline.
He was running on adrenaline
The younger son suffered the most. He was bleeding heavily. As of today, Misha has undergone resuscitation and two surgeries. He now has numerous small cuts from glass (mostly second-degree), and the most serious injury is a long cut under his chin, which surgeons had to stitch. His father recalls that the older son heard the scream and managed to pull his younger brother out of the room.
“I didn’t hear the scream. It was as if I’d been deafened. We were in shock. We didn’t understand what was happening. Later, I went over everything in my head and realised I had been running on adrenaline for about a day. I didn’t feel any pain at all. I’d lost my glasses, so everything was blurry. I ran outside. I saw the children, I saw the fire. Rocket fuel is highly flammable—there was no way to extinguish it.”
But part of the flat that had water access—the bathroom—survived. Neighbours brought six-litre bottles and, working together, managed to contain the fire until rescue services arrived.
Arkady does not remember who called the ambulance or the rescue team—he was completely focused on putting out the fire: “I see flames, I have to put them out.”
Will there be prospects?
On their first night without a home, Arkady and his son stayed at his parents’ house. Then acquaintances reached out and offered them a place to stay. Later, other friends posted on Facebook and found temporary accommodation for them, and more people called to offer help. It is troubling that the list of those who stepped in consists entirely of acquaintances and friends. Shouldn’t the state and local authorities be the first to take care of housing for people affected by shelling?
The Dnipro District State Administration’s website has a dedicated section with detailed information on where to go, write, or call if one’s home has been damaged by a Russian missile or a combat UAV.
Arkady Zaslavsky said that his wife—who is the owner of the destroyed apartment—is currently completing the paperwork to receive assistance from the Department of Social and Veterans’ Policy.
Victims are entitled to a one-time payment of 10,000 hryvnias.
If the apartment is officially recognised as uninhabitable, an additional 40,000 hryvnias is available. To receive it, the owner must submit proof of ownership and a certificate from the housing and utilities department confirming that the apartment is indeed uninhabitable.
The state does not provide any temporary housing options.
“I raised the issue of alternative housing on the very first day, when the temporary headquarters was set up. They told me that a special commission would assess the condition of the entrance hall and the floors between storeys and between rooms. Based on this assessment, they will decide whether the building should be renovated or demolished. This will take about a year and a half. If the building is demolished, then of course they should offer alternative accommodation. But no one is discussing it or offering anything. This is the headache of those who find themselves homeless,” Arkady concludes.
Act to avoid suffering
The family managed to salvage some belongings—clothes, shoes, and anything that hadn’t been destroyed by the fire. Arkady returned to the flat several times to collect other essential items. The area is under 24-hour police surveillance to prevent looting. Officers check IDs and allow residents quick access to the damaged building to retrieve what they need.
State institutions have offered no compensation or even minimal assistance for the medical treatment of injured residents.
“We didn’t ask for anything. Everything is happening by itself. We’re treating ourselves and getting back on our feet. To be honest, I’m not sure that the building or the apartment will ever be restored. So we need to focus on action, not suffering.”
So, can affected Kyiv residents expect new housing to replace what was destroyed by Russian aggression? Journalists from UA.News tried to get an answer from the local district administration. First, they were redirected to a list of other officials’ phone numbers, and in the end, the duty officer at the operational headquarters said he was not authorised to provide explanations to “whoever.”
Earlier, analysts calculated which parts of the capital have been hit most frequently by Russian missiles and drones since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It turned out that Troieshchyna is the safest neighbourhood in Kyiv, with Russian drones and missiles typically flying over it on their way to other parts of the city.
