Ukrainian National Swimming Team Coach Rescued From Rubble Post-Missile Attack

by Sarah Berman 10

March 02nd, 2022 International, News

The Ukrainian National Team swimming coach was dug out from a bomb shelter after a missile hit the building where she was volunteering.

Aiyna Morozova, the Director of SC Spartak Kharkiv, and the Director of Kharkiv regional department of the Ukrainian Swimming Federation was trapped underneath the basement rubble for two-hours until she was rescued by a volunteer who heard her crying for help.

ā€œI am alive, partly safe and very upset,ā€ Morozva wrote in an email to the Ukrainian Swimming Federation with the photo of her post-evacuation attached.

ā€œI was in the HODA building, on the first floor in the second office from Ivanova Street, I worked as a volunteer in the buffet for soldiers and I will do so – I can be on the sidelines, this is my country, where I planned to become Minister of Youth and Sports … lay under the rubble for two hours and prayed to all the Gods, in all the languages ā€‹ā€‹I know. I could not move and cried, thinking that I would die buried alive, and I almost never cry. I was found in the basement,ā€ Morozova wrote on Facebook in Ukrainian, which has been translated to English.

ā€œGod bless the savior Zhenya (37 years old), who heard my cries and spoke to me! You demanded to continue the search for me and helped dig up others and you found me !!!! I love you !!!!!!!!!!!!!,ā€ she continued.

Per the post from Wednesday, Morozova has no serious injuries. ā€œOnly, it seems, the psyche is slightly affected (but many think that I was not in myself before these events) and a complete change of worldview,ā€ she writes.Ā 

Dmytro Kachurovskyy, the former President of the Ukrainian Swimming Federation commented on the situation via an email to SwimSwam. ā€œPutin’s propaganda tells the Russian people that it is not war, that it is a military campaign. But they are bombing ordinary people like Aiyna. She is not a soldier as hundreds of people were killed and wounded by Russians. As I know, this propaganda works – 93% of Russian people support this.ā€

ā€œHonestly, I don’t know what to write with this image but we need to stop it,ā€ he writes.

SwimSwam has reached out to Morozova for comment.Ā 

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ACC fan
2 years ago

I’m crying and praying for everyone.

Fluidg
2 years ago

šŸ˜¢
Heartbreaking

random swimmer
Reply to  Fluidg
2 years ago

this really is heartbreaking i hope that this will end soon

Mcanfan
2 years ago

Just hope this will end sooner than later. And no more people need to be hurt like this.

Observer
2 years ago

Hope fina take a hard look at this picture while they welcome Russians to their meets

Ol' Longhorn
2 years ago

And all the whining about how Covid disrupted training.

2020Swammer
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
2 years ago

It did disrupt training, though. A lot of teams (club, high school, and college) couldnā€™t hold practices or had to limit capacity. Itā€™s had a horrible mental toll on athletes. Almost a million Americans are dead. Many athletes are suffering from Long COVID. Ella Eastin was forced into retirement, and she certainly isnā€™t the only oneā€¦

Also, there is absolutely no need to bring this up in an article about a survivor of an ongoing, unjustified war.

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
2 years ago

??

Don’t know why we gotta compare the two things.

Covid isn’t like being under active barrage but it’s not exactly some minor inconvenience, either.

swimmer
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
2 years ago

where is the correlationā€¦

Yswim
2 years ago

We once again can be grateful for our good fortune while others face unfathomable tragedy. Slava Ukraini