The largest symbol of Russian bestiality. This story shook all of Ukraine. “I don't even have the strength to hate”
On September 4, 2024, early morning. It was then that there was a moment that divided the life of Jarosław Baslewicz into “before” and “PO”. A powerful ball of fire pierced the sky over Lviv, a moment later an explosion took place, which brightened the old buildings of Western Ukraine. Then the darkness fell again. Jarosław heard the worst information: Jewhenija, Jaryna, Darija and Emilija Basylewicz are dead.
From the beginning of the invasion, Russia has been terrorizing the civilian population of Ukraine. The UN estimates that from February 2022 the number of fatalities among civilians was over 14,000, and the number of wounded – over 35,000 However, the actual number is probably much higher. Recently, Moscow has significantly intensified attacks with combat drones, maneuvering, hypersonic and gliding bombs.
Although the Ukrainians have already got used to terror and death, the history of the Basylewiczo family truly shook the whole country.
She showed how dangerous life in Ukraine is – even in places located away from the front. In cities where it seems to be quite a normal life most of the time, death lurks behind each corner. Through such acts of terror, Moscow tries to break the war tired of war.
On the night of September 4, 2024, sirens resounded in Lviv. Dozens of drones and rockets flew towards the city. In Ukraine, this is nothing unusual – even in the west of the country, 800 km behind the front, 70 km from the Polish border. The Basylewicz family wanted to wait an alarm in the staircase. According to the theory that Ukrainians adopted over a few years of war, Basylewiczs did properly. She says that if there is no shelter nearby, you should hide in a place where the walls themselves are, without windows. This should ensure safety.
However, the Russian hypersonic Kindżal missile hit the staircase. He killed four women from the Baslewicz family and their three neighbors. Pictures showing the building after the attack have survived – in the place where the stairs were once, there was a meter gap.
Basylewicz house after the attackJarosław Basylewicz / Die Welt
Jarosław Basylewicz was the only family at the time of hitting the bullet in the room upstairs – he wanted to bring water. He thought that if someone died in the attack, it was him. It happened differently. Shortly after hitting the bullet, the building was stunned, bleeded and did not see one eye. But he survived.
“People should not pay attention to me”
It is 2025, sunny Saturday late summer in the Old Town in Lviv. Sitting in cafes sip latte, children run with a scream between fountains. If the town hall windows on the ground floor were not barricaded with sandbags, it would look like a completely normal Central European city with an old Habsburg face.
Jarosław Basylewicz greets in German – he learned this language at school and can conduct simple conversations. When the translator arrives, he sits down in the cafe with his back to other guests. Only now is he taking off sunglasses. – People should not pay attention to me. Even if they recognized me, they shouldn't show it – he says.
Basylewicz gained unwanted fame – reporters cameras captured as soon after the hit he learned about the death of his family. Like a bleeding and lost, he followed the rescuers who took the body of one of his daughters from the building. As during a live -broadcast funeral ceremony, he stood on the edge, dressed in a black shirt, with a face covered with wounds. Seded by a friend, while in front of his eyes four white coffs disappeared in the ground, and with them – everything that was expensive to him.
Jarosław Bazylewicz in a funeral conduct during the farewell ceremony of his family members, September 6, 2024.Global Images Ukraine / Contributor / Getty Images
Jewhenija, his wife. They met thanks to her brother. The 43-year-old studied marketing and worked for European companies, and also conducted yoga classes, designed clothes and jewelry. Basylewicz mentions that her “superpower” was time management. – Children always talked about her: Mom can do things that you can't do at that time – she recalls.
Jaryna, 21 years old. On video recordings, which Baslewicz has on the phone, dances in front of the camera. She graduated from IT studies at the Lviv Polytechnic, worked at IT company and in the European Capital of Youth 2025, which was appointed Lviv.
Continued article under video material
Darija, 18 years old. Thanks to the scholarship, she studied cultural studies at the Catholic University of Lviv, and also took acting lessons. During puberty, she struggled with anxiety, but over time they gave way. On Christmas 2023, less than a year before her death, her university published a film in which Darija thanks in English Canadian donors who financed her scholarship. Shortly after the attack, she was to start the third semester.
Emilija, 6 years old, played the piano and liked to swim. She went to the second class and knew English well. “She learned this language thanks to animated films, and even took over the British accent,” says Basylewicz and smiles for a moment. A few days after the attack she would be seven years old.
As Basylewicz says, they were quite a normal family struggling with the challenges of everyday life. The children were starting to discover the world. Perhaps that is why their death caused such a great stir.
“I wanted to convey what the Ukrainians experience”
Shortly after the attack, the strangers approached Baslewicz in a restaurant and wanted to pay for his meals, many people talked to him on the street. The man says he is grateful for these gestures, but sometimes it all overwhelms him. – Some want to gain fame. I never wanted it – he says. He has the impression that he is constantly observed in his sadness. It raises suspicions when he has a better mood, and yet he has the right to do so. He does not give interviews to Ukrainian media, because they are recognized by more people after them.
However, he talks about his history foreign media, although it is difficult for him. In February in Munich, at the invitation of a non -governmental organization, he gave a speech in German, in which he accused Russia of the desire to destroy Ukraine “as a cultural nation and the community of values.” – My desire was to represent the interests of Ukraine during this journey. I wanted to convey what the Ukrainians experience so that the country would receive support and to understand what is happening here – he says.
In Berlin, he met with Bundestag MPs and assistant to Friedrich Merz, in the Netherlands with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he also talked with politicians in Washington. However, his interest in politics has expired. “I don't see sense anymore,” he says. Because people in Europe “probably did not quite understand how serious the threat could be.” But he doesn't give up. “I don't know if I can change something, but I do what I can,” he says.
He deals with daily matters. They help him meet his friends. And small things. He learns English, goes to the gym. He works again – two to three hours a day, he is a co -founder and managing director of a private company dealing in the sale of heating boilers.
“I don't even have the strength to hate. I feel rather empty”
What next? Can you still have dreams after such a tragedy?
“I don't plan anything,” says Basylewicz. – I kill time.
Meanwhile, the war against its country is still ongoing. And people still die in Russian raids, also in West Ukraine. Basylewicz still hears Syrena – the same sound that preceded the death of his family. “But I don't react to them anymore,” he says. He currently lives outside the city, in a town where Russian missiles rarely fall. – Although what bullet could be worse than that of September 4, 2024? – He wonders loudly.
“If we stayed in our beds that tragic night, it wouldn't end so badly,” he says. The theory that the staircase is safe in the staircase turned out to be wrong, at least in this case.
Jarosław Basylewicz in the center of LvivFlorian Saedler / Die Welt
In order not to go crazy, he often referred to statistics. Not once did he wonder what the probability is that in a city of 700 thousand. residents such a tragic story will meet him. He believed that it was quite low, that in this mass of people he was quite safe. Now he is still wondering why all the rules and certainties have failed that night. He knows, however, that he will not find an answer.
Russia turned the world of Jarosław Basyleiwcz into an endless spiral of sadness and apathy. Still, he says he doesn't feel hatred. “It may sound strange, but I probably don't even have the strength to hate.” I feel rather void – he says.
So how do you live on? Is it still possible to live a peaceful life when you remain alone? Jarosław Basylewicz does not know that yet. But he fights for every new day, just like his country. This is a quiet war that often dies in the shade of a loud war with tanks and rockets. But it is a war that will continue to occupy Ukraine – even when rifles fired.
