‘Most precious stolen’: Missile kills Liza, 4

VINNYTSIA, Ukraine –

Liza, a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome, was on her way to see a speech therapist with her mother in central Ukraine when a Russian missile fell from the sky.

She never came to the appointment. Now the images that tell the story of her life and her end are touching hearts all over the world.

Wearing a blue denim jacket with flowers, Liza was among 23 people killed, including children aged 7 and 8, in Thursday’s missile attack in Vinnytsia. Her mother, Iryna Dmytrieva, was among the dozens injured.

After the explosion, the mother and daughter went in different directions. Iryna, 33, was admitted to a hospital’s intensive care unit while Liza went to a morgue.

“He remembered that he was looking for his daughter and that Liza was already dead,” Iryna’s aunt, Tetiana Dmytrysyna, told The Associated Press on Friday. “Her mother was robbed of the most precious thing she had.”

Shortly before the explosion, Dmytrieva had posted a video on social media showing her daughter straining to reach the handlebars to push her own stroller, walking happily through Vinnytsia, dressed in a denim jacket and white pants, her hair adorned. with a pin Another video on social media showed the girl spinning around in a lavender dress in a lavender field.

After the Russian missile attack, Ukraine’s emergency services shared photos showing her lifeless body on the ground next to her bloodstained pram. Videos and photos have gone viral, the latest images and stories from the brutal war in Ukraine to horrify the world.

The wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted that she had met this “wonderful girl” while filming a Christmas video with a group of children who were given oversized ornaments to paint.

“The naughty girl then managed in half an hour to paint not only herself, her party dress, but also all the other children, me, the cameramen and the director… Look at her alive, please,” Olena wrote. Zelenska. in a note accompanying the video.

When the war began, Dmytrieva and her family fled Kyiv, the capital, for Vinnytsia, a city 268 kilometers (167 miles) to the southwest. Until Thursday, Vinnytsia was considered relatively safe.

Dmytrieva gave birth to her only daughter when she was 29 years old. The girl was born with a heart defect but the doctors saved her. She also suffered from Down syndrome.

“Liza was a sunny baby,” her great-aunt recalled. “They say that these children do not understand or know how to do everything. But this is not true. She was a very smart girl. She knew how to draw, she talked, she always helped adults and she always smiled. She always cheerful”.

For her mother, Liza was the greatest gift of her life.

“She loved her infinitely,” said Great-Aunt.

The blast site is now cordoned off. People come to leave flowers, candles and teddy bears. Another item in a makeshift shrine is a page from a children’s lesson book. Among the mourners are mothers deeply moved by the story of Iryna and Liza Dmytrieva.

“Innocent children are dying,” said Kateryna Kondratyuk, breaking down in tears at the scene of the explosion.

Meanwhile, Iryna is conscious and in intensive care.

“She is a fighter. She will come out. We are all praying for her,” says her aunt.

Liza’s father was at the morgue on Friday completing paperwork to receive his daughter’s body for burial.

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Andrew Katell in New York contributed.


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