British aid worker describes ‘hell’ of Kryvyi Rih missile strike

Karol Swiacki was en route to renovate a school when the Russian missile hit. He called on President Donald Trump, who has stopped US aid, to visit Ukraine.

An aid worker based in Britain who narrowly escaped death in a Russian strike on a hotel in President Zelensky’s home town has described the “hell” of the attack.

Four people were killed and 32 injured, including a child, when an Iskander ballistic missile hit the Tsentralny Hotel in Kryvyi Rih at about 10pm on Wednesday night.

The strike followed a pause in American military assistance to Ukraine, which if it were to continue would notably inhibit Ukraine’s abilities to intercept the faster ballistic missiles such as the one used in the Kryvyi Rih strike.

“We couldn’t breathe,” said Karol Swiacki, who is originally from Poland but has lived in the UK for 20 years. “We couldn’t see anything. It was like hell. And honestly, people need to see this.”

Swiacki, 43, who runs the charity Ukraine Relief, was with a group of volunteers, including Marc Edwards, 65, a Briton who lives in the United States, and was en route to deliver sports equipment and renovate a school for 550 children.

“Within 20 to 30 seconds of when we received a message on a Ukrainian phone that a ballistic missile was coming, it was a direct hit, and people were dead. We were lucky to be in the restaurant. If we were in our rooms I wouldn’t be talking to you today (Friday),” Swiacki said over the telephone.

Marc Edwards, left, with Karol Swiacki.

On Thursday morning, hours before he met European leaders in Brussels to discuss increased military support for Ukraine, President Zelensky condemned the attack. “Ballistic missiles hit an ordinary hotel. Just before the strike volunteers from a humanitarian organisation – citizens of Ukraine, the United States and Britain – checked into the hotel,” he said.

“The foreign nationals survived because they were able to get down from their rooms.”

In what may have been a reference to the Trump administration’s decision to “pause” military aid to Ukraine, Zelensky added: “There can be no pause in the pressure on Russia to stop this war and terror against life.”

Swiacki said that the strike made it clear to him that the West should be “ashamed” for not helping Ukraine enough. He implored President Trump to visit Ukraine, saying: “Come to Ukraine, see it for yourself, feel it for yourself what normal people are doing to save normal people.”

In a reference to the Trump administration’s inability to acknowledge Russia as an aggressor in the war, he added: “Russians are those who are coming to kill Ukrainians. If they would go back home, all this nightmare would be finished.”

Kryvyi Rih is President Zelensky’s home city.

Swiacki offered his condolences to the families of those killed in the attack.

“People are dying defending this country. We should be ashamed. Ashamed as a western civilisation to look at this and ignore it,” he added.

Attacks on hotels often hosting foreign diplomats, aid workers and journalists have become commonplace during the war. At the end of January a Russian strike hit the Hotel Bristol in central Odesa housing Norwegian diplomats, while Turkish and Georgian nationals were among 13 injured in a strike on a hotel in Kharkiv last year.

Last August, a British safety adviser for Reuters was killed, and two other journalists were injured, in a strike on a hotel in Kramatorsk.

In summer 2023 an attack on a hotel frequented by UN officials in Zaporizhzhia killed one and left 16 injured. Russia claimed the hotel was being used by “foreign mercenaries”.

The Times