An Ukrainian policeman lost his entire family including his six-year-old daughter and six-week-old baby son after they were shot dead with their mother and grandparents on the day Russia invaded, it emerged today.
Oleg Fedko, 30, was out on patrol when his loved-ones were killed when soldiers opened fire on two cars on a road near Novaya Kakhovka in southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian media reports Russian troops shot the family in Ukraine’s bombarded Kherson region, north of Crimea.
Six-year-old Sofia Fedko and her brother Ivan, who was only six weeks old, died with the children’s mother Irina, 27, and two grandparents, both aged 56, on the first day of the conflict last Thursday.
Oleg’s brother Denis Fedko said he was speaking to his mother on the phone at the time. ‘I was talking to my mother,’ he said, adding: ‘I kept hearing my mother yelling that there were children [in the car] and ‘How can you [do that]?’.’
Describing when the attack began he said: ‘I heard little Vanya [Ivan] was crying loudly. He was only a month and a half old. And then I heard shots. Then there was silence after that, and then shots again. There were two bursts, each two to three shots long. I realised they were finishing them off’.
Reports say that Oleg Sr had driven to pick up family members because his son was on duty.
It was the same day – 24 February – that Russian troops entered Veseloye village, some 40 miles from Kherson city, and the family reportedly decided to flee again from the Russians.
Local reports say the first car managed to pass in front of the Russian soldiers in Veseloye village. The second car did not have time.
The policeman ‘is unable to retrieve the bodies of his relatives killed by the Russian troops’, reported zaxid.net.
The tragedy is yet another example of how Putin’s war has been waged on all Ukrainians, including children.
The lives of the brother and sister of Polina, the Harry Potter mad Ukrainian 10-year-old girl shot dead by the Russians with their parents, still hang in the balance today as a little girl blown up with five others when a missile hit a kindergarten was also named.
Polina was among three members of the same family murdered in their car by one of Putin’s sabotage and reconnaissance units operating in the capital on Saturday.
Anton Kudrin, and wife Svetlana Zapadynskaya and their middle daughter died in a hail of bullets, their eldest daughter Sofia and youngest son Semyon are wounded and in a critical condition in hospital, unaware their family has been killed.
A poignant picture of a relative, head bowed, while clutching Semyon’s hand as he lies stricken on a ventilator epitomizes how Putin’s war is targeting civilians and continues to take a terrible toll on Ukraine’s youngest and most vulnerable. 16 children have died and 45 wounded since last Thursday, with the death toll expected to rise later today.
Sofia Fedko, six, was killed with her baby brother when troops opened fire on the family car, also killing her mother Irina. Sofia’s father Oleg (pictured with his wife) was working as a police officer when his family died
Oleg and Irena with their daughter when she turned two. The couple had just had their second child, a baby boy. who also died in the attack
Grandparents Oleg Fedko, 56, and Anna Fedko, 56, also died, driving the family away from their southern city after the Russians invaded
The brutal treatment suffered at the hands of the Russians by Ukraine’s children has appalled the world as it was also revealed that one child with gunshot wounds died on the way to hospital after his ambulance came under fire from the invaders.
Yesterday images charting the senseless death of the so-called girl in the pink unicorn pyjamas shocked the world. Surrounded by doctors and nurses, the girl of six lay fatally wounded on a paramedic’s trolley being held by her bloodsoaked father – one of the youngest victims of Putin’s murderous onslaught on her country.
A picture of the smiling pink-haired schoolgirl Polina was shared by Vladimir Bondarenko, the deputy mayor of Kyiv yesterday. Mr Bondarenko said: ‘Her name was Polina. She studied in the 4th grade of school in Kyiv. Her and her parents were shot by Russian DRG.’ The 10-year-old loved the Harry Potter books and was in her final year at primary school when she was murdered.
Seven-year-old Alisa Hlans was one of six people who died when her kindergarten was hit on Friday, the second day of the Russian invasion. Pictures of the aftermath of the attack showed bodies strewn around the entrance as the staff tried to flee with the children.
At least one child hiding at the nursery was wounded in the attack.
Prosecutor general Irina Venediktova said Alisa, who was three months away from her eighth birthday, died in hospital on Saturday after the attack in the small town of Okhtyrka, an hour’s drive from Ukraine’s north-east border.
The Russian military were accused of using cluster bombs in the attack, with the shattered kindergarten showing signs of multiple explosions from a single bomb. The Kremlin has denied the claims.
An unnamed boy was killed on the second day of fighting in the small town of Chuhuiv in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, after a shell struck apartments.
While one local doctor told Sky News that a boy of ten died of gunshot wounds on his way to Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv on Friday night. Dr Andrey Vysotskyi said the boy was ‘in the ambulance and also the ambulance was under gunfire’.
Children not killed or injured are among the 500,000-plus people trying to flee Ukraine for the West – many have been forced to say goodbye to their fathers, who are staying behind to fight.
Putin’s disgraceful war waged on the people of Ukraine was laid bare in heart-wrenching pictures capturing the death of an innocent six-year-old – dubbed the girl in the pink unicorn pyjamas – one of 16 children now killed in the conflict.
The upsetting pictures charted the fight to save the unnamed little girl who was fatally injured when the Russians shelled her Mariupol apartment block on Sunday – and epitomized the terrible toll war is having on civilians, especially children.
During the rescue attempt, a doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, turned to the AP photographer and said: ‘Show this to Putin: The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.’
Polina’s younger brother Semyon Kudrin is supported by a loved one as he lies on a ventilator after being wounded by the Russians in an attack that claimed the lives of his sister and parents. His eldest sibling Sofia also hangs in the balance
Pink-haired Polina, ten, was shot and killed by the Russians while in a car with her parents in Kyiv. The Harry Potter fan was due to finish primary school this year
Seven-year-old Alisa Hlans was one of six people who died when her kindergarten was hit on Friday, the second day of the Russian invasion. Pictures of the aftermath of the attack showed bodies strewn around the entrance as the staff tried to flee with the children in Okhtyrka in Eastern Ukraine. The circles suggest multiple impacts, likely to be from a cluster bomb
Father Anton Kudrin, and wife Svetlana Zapadynskaya and their middle daughter Polina died, their eldest daughter Sofia (at the back) and youngest son Semyon (right) were badly wounded
A woman, who could be the child’s mother, reacts as paramedics perform CPR on the girl who was fatally injured during shelling in Mariupol yesterday. She clutches her blood-soaked hand to her mouth while clutching the child’s belongings with the other including shoes and a scarf
The child lies dead and alone in the city’s hospital after Russian attacks claimed her life in a picture that has shocked the world. 16 children have died in Ukraine since Thursday, 45 are wounded
Clutching her blood-covered hand to her mouth and carrying the child’s slippers, pompom scarf and bobble hat, one woman, who could be her mother, was photographed as attempts were made to resuscitate the six-year-old in the back of an ambulance after the artillery strike.
The next picture, too graphic to be published, shows the girl’s father holding his lifeless child’s hand as the paramedic performs CPR on her tiny body. He is sobbing while covered in what appears to be her blood.
A team of doctors then tenderly carries the child, who is still wearing her red-stained unicorn pyjamas, into the hospital in the coastal city. Her bedclothes are then cut away so a team of seven doctors work on her body, which is still being gripped by her praying father.
The final image shows the child alone on a gurney in an empty ward, having been declared dead in a war that had by Sunday claimed civilian victims of at least 210, including more than a dozen children.
More than 500,000 refugees, mainly women and children, are fleeing Ukraine for the West, with some children separated or even orphaned since the invasion began. Queues of up to 25 miles are reported at the border with Poland and Romania.
It came as Mail readers donated an extraordinary £268,000 on the first day of our Ukraine Appeal. The newspaper’s owner also pledged £500,000 – sending the first day’s monumental total soaring past £750,000 to be given to reputable charities that are already on the ground doling out hot food, blankets and vital shelter to stricken families.
The gut-wrenching picture of the six-year-old child’s pale and lifeless body could become the defining images of the conflict in the same way the photo of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, washed up drowned on a Turkish beach 2015, horrified the world and laid bare the plight of refugees fleeing the wartorn country.
Her death, and of other children, exposes Putin’s filthy lie that he is not waging war on the Ukrainian people amid calls for him to be treated as a war criminal for his bombing of civilians. Several nurseries and kindergartens have also been hit.
President Zelensky said in a TV address yesterday that 16 Ukrainian children have been killed and 45 wounded in the four days since the invasion began.
Little boy Mark Goncharuk was filmed fleeing with others in a van toward the Ukrainian border, fighting the tears as he spoke about how his father stayed behind to help support the fight against the Russians.
As tears poured down his face he said: ‘We left our Dad in Kyiv. He is helping our heroes, our army, and may even fight himself’. The family were picked up by a team from the Reuters press agency. Mark said: ‘We were walking for three hours and planned to walk for three days. You saved us’.
A member of the Slovak Armed Forces carries a child fleeing from Ukraine who arrived in Slovakia with her family, after Russia launched a massive military operation against Ukraine
