Daniele wrote a message saying that at 5am this morning I was woken by an explosion sound. I assumed it was fireworks, and I went to bed. “At 7am, I woke up again and saw my friends from other cities. They also had heard the sounds. Everyone was scared,” Daniele said.
Daniele lives in Kyiv. This was one of the cities that were hit by Russia’s overnight attack. The attack, which Ukrainian leaders described as a “full scale invasion” and Vladimir Putin called it a “special military operations”, left many people hurt. CBS News teams also visited the city and reported hearing loud explosions, like Daniele. According to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian government, “cruise missile and ballistic missile attacks” were launched against the city’s military control centres.
Daniele shared the following tweet from CBS News on Thursday morning: “I just woken up, all my friends scared and don’t know how to proceed.” She stated that all school, online and offline, was cancelled and that her parents had plans to move out of the area.
Daniele soon tweeted shortly after that something had apparently exploded near her. However, she wasn’t certain where.
She said “Oh my God it’s not just near me, something is going in Kyiv Ren [right now]”, and soon afterwards, “Now it’s [quiet].
She said she is feeling fine at the moment but is worried about her friends in Kharkiv, a region in northeast Ukraine that was also heavily hit overnight by Russia’s military, as well as the major cities Odessa, Mariupol.
“My friend texted an hour ago that there were many Ukrainian tanks and military forces in Kharkov,” she said to CBS News at 10:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, using Kharkiv’s Russian name. “They have not texted since then.”
She said that she and her family are getting ready for the big move. They plan to move to the country, believing it may be safer.
CBS News interviewed Daniele just a few days earlier about the Ukraine situation. She expressed hope that no full-scale war would occur. She and her friends talked about it often, but they tried to not dwell on it. They enjoyed listening to music, watching movies, and being together.
The couple also had high hopes for a school dance. But Daniele stated that making plans for such an event was not possible because they don’t know what would happen.
She said that she was worried about war because so many people are going to die, and it was terrible. This statement was made less than 12 hours prior to Russia’s attack on the United States. “I want peace.”
Daniele hopes to one day become a lawyer, so that she can help others, she stated.
“I am just a child, and I don’t want to worry about these things. I want to go to college. I want to see my dreams come true. This is something that many others want.
She said that “if war begins,” it would be “terrible.”
