Widely shared footage from Ukraine shows a man surviving an airstrike while filming a video for social media. The man is seen recording himself in a structure of some kind when he suddenly hears the unmistakable sound of an incoming airstrike. Fortunately, he survived and made it to cover before posting the video on Instagram. The harrowing video reminds us of what the last seconds must sound like for many people trapped in warzones around the world.
Man films himself surviving airstrike
There’s been no shortage of comments about how surreal it is to watch a large-scale conventional war in Europe through videos filmed on phones and posted on social media.
Some of the footage that has been passed around online has been proven to have come from Syria, Gaza, or the long low-intensity war in Donbass.
Videos purporting to show aerial combat have even been proven to have come from video games, though that hasn’t stopped them from spreading on Twitter and elsewhere.
Details of the airstrike recorded in the Instagram video are unclear, though Russia has been increasing the intensity of its bombing and shelling as it seeks to take several well-defended cities.
Unlike the Iraq invasion in 2003, the invasion of Ukraine was not preceded by a lengthy campaign of airstrikes, with only limited strikes on military infrastructure taking place before the ground troops advanced.
Now Russia appears to have decided that it is ready to start increasing the intensity of its strikes after sustaining significant losses.
Civilian casualties mounting as conflict continues
In the months leading up to the invasion, Ukraine devoted some efforts to teaching civilians about recognizing the dangers of various types of explosives and ammunition.
Hopefully this preparation has saved some lives, but there’s very little anyone can do to survive a strike like the one seen in this video.
The man we see in this footage was just far enough from the blast to escape relatively unscathed, but others likely were not so lucky.
Reliable estimates for civilian casualties would be hard to come by while the fighting is still raging but the United Nations has estimated that several hundred have been killed.
Most of those deaths have come as a result of bombing and shelling as fighting takes place in populated areas. Negotiations to facilitate civilian evacuations from besieged cities have had only limited success.
Collateral damage resulting in civilian casualties is inevitable when bombs and missiles are in use, and footage from Ukraine is a sobering reminder of what millions of people around the world have endured in the 21st century alone.
