"A glass wall fell on my bed": the apartment of the Ukrainian Olympic medalist was hit by a rocket attack on Christmas Day, and the champion was saved by chance

The occupiers from the Russian Federation "congratulated" two-time Olympic medalist in artistic swimming Marta Fedina by vandalizing her apartment in Kharkiv. It was only a fluke that saved the world champion and her family from a targeted missile attack by Kremlin terrorists.

In a conversation with OBOZ.UA, the titled athlete said that she was supposed to be at her apartment that morning, but her plans changed at the last minute and she had to stay in Kyiv. Otherwise, she could have been hurt, because it was Fedina's bedroom that was hit the hardest, and heavy tempered glass fell directly on her bed.

"Fortunately, I was not able to come to Kharkiv for Christmas as I had planned. It's my apartment, my parents don't live there, but if I come for a few days, we basically all get together and live there," said Marta.

"On Christmas morning, two Russian missiles hit us. There was a direct hit on the boiler room in the yard of my house at 6:20 am. That is, as it usually happens, I would have slept in the room that was heavily damaged. And my parents would be in another room, the guest room. And it would have been difficult, to put it mildly," the synchronized swimmer admitted.

All the windows in the athlete's apartment were smashed, but her bedroom was the worst hit: "The glass wall fell right on my bed. My mom said that they came later and the three of them were lifting it up, the men and her, and that wall must have weighed 200 kilograms, and her back hurt after that. And everything was broken, but she didn't get hurt at all, because it was such tempered glass, so she just fell right down on my bed."

"This wall was actually divided into two parts - one slightly smaller, the other larger. The smaller one was right at face level, and it was simply stopped by a bedside table. And the big one just fell right down. And... in short, it wouldn't have been good," Fedina admits.

"Well, yes, besides this window, the interior doors, the dressing room, and the bathroom tiles were smashed. In general, one side of the apartment was pretty well damaged. They wished me a Merry Christmas. But, you know, in this bad situation, the good thing is that I still couldn't come," Marta sadly stated.

The first to arrive at the airport were the Olympic medalist's parents, who moved from occupied Donetsk to Kharkiv in 2014.

"Of course, when my mom told me, the realization that this has already affected you directly is so terrible. But in general, she added a little bit of that parental positive. Like, given that you could have been there and we could have been there, it's all a bunch of bullshit. Was it unpleasant? Yes, of course. But looking at everything that's happening now, this is probably one of those smaller events. It's not the worst thing that could have happened," the athlete is sure.

Marta has now moved to Kyiv, but she does not forget about the city that became her home: "I come to Kharkiv, well, once every one or two months or so. The last time I was there was in November, and I'm going to go on the 30th. So, yes, I still manage to come about once a month."

Although Fedina, who announced her retirement at the end of this year, associates her future activities with the capital of Ukraine: "Well, yes, slowly, as if I'm moving into coaching. I moved to Kyiv in the summer, so yes, I've already settled in a little bit."

Marta doesn't have a clear plan for the renovation of her Kharkiv apartment yet: "Everyone asks me about it, everyone asks me how to help or if they can come to disassemble it. But my parents came and collected everything that was possible. But glass is fragile. If you break a glass at home, you have to collect it for two more years. Here, everything was shattered into very small pieces."

"My parents removed the doors, some rails from the dressing room, removed the tiles because they are so big and heavy, and if they fall on the bathtub, the whole bathtub will break. Well, they did what they could. And the utilities came right away. My mom said they immediately gave me blankets, medicines, and boarded up the windows - they quickly climbed up on a crane and covered everything with chipboard or something," the champion said.

In 2022, the synchronized swimmer's apartment was also slightly damaged: "But there was only glass in one room, not even a frame. I mean, there were just some small things. Of course, I'll probably have to make repairs, but I don't know, honestly. It's hard to talk about it now. It may or may not make sense, so I don't know. I want to come and see it first."

"But I think it will be hard for me to accept, because this apartment is my baby, so to speak. After all, I bought it, did everything for myself, and dreamed of living there. But fate did not work out as expected. I managed to live there for a week before the full-scale war, and then last year we trained in Kharkiv. I lived there from September to March. And then we went to Canada and France. And then I moved to Kyiv. In general, I lived a little bit, but..." Marta recalled.

The parents of the Olympic medalist continue to stay in Kharkiv despite the constant shelling. And the recent events that could have ended in tragedy did not make them think about moving. Moreover, there are no absolutely safe places in Ukraine now.

"Yeah, well, you know, we've raised this topic so many times. But I understand that it's like that everywhere now, right? I mean, apartments are, of course, unpleasant. But this is the least of what happens. And so much has happened this year. It especially affected those who fought. It's just that, you know, at the end of the year, it all falls on top of each other. And it's so unpleasant," Marta admits.

"But in general, if you look at what happens to people there, you can't compare life or health with apartments. This is something that money can buy. It's unpleasant, but we can fix it. As for my parents' relocation, we've talked about it so many times, but it's mostly the same everywhere - they fly to Kyiv and to the west of Ukraine. We don't have a safe place now," the athlete adds.

In general, 2024 was a difficult year for Marta, as the Ukrainian team failed to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

"I didn't sleep the previous two nights, there were so many thoughts. And I will say that it was a difficult year. Not at all what was planned at the beginning. A lot of changes, a lot of new things, a lot of bad moments, but there are also good ones, of course, some cool events. For me, it was so life-changing. Somehow, everything happened in one moment. In particular, this also applied to the decision to end my career - life turns 180 degrees in the other direction. In general, I'm lying here now and thinking: well, we seem to have survived, and that's good," Marta summarized with a smile.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA reported that the world champions told about life in Kharkiv under fire, filming a French movie, and a Belarusian woman at the competition.

Only verified information is available on the OBOZ.UA Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!