Ukrainian Mom Lives with Horror of Seeing Daughter, 12, Violently Killed By Russian Soldiers

A Ukrainian mom is living with the horror of seeing her daughter die violently during an attack by Russian soldiers in Chernihiv, north of the capital. Viktoria Kovalenko fled her home on the ninth day of the Ukrainian war with her daughters, Veronika, 12 years old, and Varvara, one year old, and her husband, Petro.

The family was heading south when they saw a blockage on the road. Petro got out of the car and told his family to haul as well. Within seconds, Russian soldiers fired on their car, causing Veronika to panic and cry as she saw blood on her mother's head. 

Viktoria said glass from the car cut her face, causing Veronika to freak out. But the mother tried to calm her down while she was also carrying Varvara. Veronika tried to run with her mother behind her, but she fell to the ground. 

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Viktoria said that her last vision of her 12-year-old girl was a harrowing sight as Veronika lost her head after she got hit by a Russian shell, BBC reported.

Mom Said She Would Shoot Putin if She Could

Though she tried to stay calm for Varvara, Viktoria also felt in her heart that her husband was also killed in the attack. So, for the next 24 hours, the mother tried to stay alive with her baby and took refuge inside a small building.

However, Russian troops discovered Viktoria and Varvara and took them captive. They were brought to a school basement, where other captives were dying from lack of food and medical care. 

According to VOA, bodies in Chernihiv were uncollected for days on the streets and in the basement. While everyone was running out of food, medicine, and battery power on their mobile phones, the bombs and the gunshots continued in the Ukrainian war. 

Despite their state, Viktoria asked the Russian captors if they could bring the barely recognizable bodies of Veronika and Petro to her so she could give them a proper burial. She was accompanied to the forest to bury her loved ones in a box. There were two crosses on their burial site.

Viktoria was also able to send photos of their burned car and some of Veronika's things to her ex-husband, her 12-year-old's biological father, to inform him of her death. In her pain, Viktoria told BBC that she would shoot Pres. Vladimir Putin, if she had the chance, and won't even flinch. 

Viktoria Coping with the Loss

Today, Viktoria and Varvavara are in Lviv in western Ukraine, where the mother has been seeing a psychologist to cope with her traumatic loss and process the horror of living with her last visions of Veronika. She said she could grieve and talk about what happened with other people, but she is loneliest when alone with her thoughts.

She has been keeping a memento of her daughter, a keyring Veronika gave her just before the war. Viktoria said it's now like an amulet and has been the one thing that has kept her and Varvara safe.   

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 4,149 civilians died in the Ukrainian war between February 24 to early April 2022.

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