LOST EVERYTHING
Granddad discovers five members of his family dead in Russian shelling – but rescues two grandkids & his cat
A UKRAINIAN granddad has been pictured hugging his cat outside his destroyed house after five of his family members were killed in a Russian airstrike.
Heartbroken, the man revealed his disabled 12-year-old daughter, wife, mother-in-law, two sons-in-law, and his wife's friend were all killed in the blast that hit their village of Markhalivka, southwest of Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
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Igor Mozhayev, who is 54, told CNN that two of his grandchildren, aged seven and eight, survived the attack, as well as his cat Marsik.
His daughter Masha, 12, who had disabilities and used a wheelchair, was one of the victims of the airstrike which hit the village six miles from Kyiv last Friday.
Pictured around the rubble of his former house, Christmas decorations, a schoolbag, toys, and family photos were scattered.
As a bulldozer rumbled nearby, Igor picked up a small, blood-stained plastic chair belonging to his daughter.
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"That's her chair," he told the . "During the day she was always sitting up in this chair."
Igor suffered bruising to his face but was otherwise largely unharmed in the blast.
At the time of the Russian airstrike, there were 11 people living in Igor's house, far more than usual.
Among those who had fled Kyiv to stay in the tiny village of Markhalivka were another of his daughters and her family, as well as a niece, her boyfriend, and a family friend.
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"We thought we would be safe from the war here," Dasha Kormilenko, Igor's daughter, told the reporter as she stood in the debris of the house with her father.
Earlier on Friday, Dasha's mother, grandmother, husband, and the family friend had driven to get food and other supplies, returning at around 3pm.
As Igor rested on the sofa, the airstrike hit.
"There was a loud noise and then an explosion," he said. "I woke up buried under the rubble."
Igor's chest was pinned under bricks, making breathing difficult, as neighbours fought to pull him out.
Four hours later, he heard the tragic news that his wife, Anna, and the others inside the car, had died after the vehicle exploded into flames following a direct hit.
Masha, who couldn't walk ever since she was hit by a drunk driver eight years ago was also killed, along with the boyfriend of Igor's niece.
Dasha and Igor's niece miraculously survived after they had returned to Kyiv to collect some more things from her apartment.
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The blast was so powerful it destroyed at least five houses and damaged several others, although only one other woman among Igor's neighbours was injured.
Many in his village had already fled to the western city of Lviv by the time of the airstrike.
On Saturday, the day after the attack, a Ukrainian army chaplain, Mykola Medynsky, came to offer his support to the family.
Since the start of the invasion on February 24, Mykola has comforted 100s of civilians trapped by the war in Kyiv.
"We go down to the basements where people are hiding," he said.
"If we feel that people have anxiety, we start to work with them gently, with prayers, psychological work, moral support."
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Mykola has also been accompanied by a Ukrainian military videographer as they look to capture, he says, evidence of Russian war crimes.
It isn't known why the small village was targeted. There is a small Ukrainian military unit nearby, according to sources, while others have speculated that a Russian jet was hit by Ukrainian air defences and decided to jettison its bombs to reach safety.
However, Lysenko, the videographer, rejected that argument.
Referring to the Russian pilot, he said: "He fired at the residential area just out of spite. If he simply wanted to get rid of the munitions, he would have fired them into the woods or fields nearby."
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It comes as Russia was accused of further war crimes after a maternity hospital in Mariupol was shelled.
Three people were killed including a six-year-old girl, while 17 people were injured in the attack on the besieged port city.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the hospital suffered a "direct strike" and children were left buried under the rubble on Wednesday afternoon, branding the attack as an act of "genocide".
Women waiting to give birth were wounded in the strike, while children were buried in the rubble.
A bleeding woman with a swollen belly was seen being carried on a stretcher past burned and mangled cars.
The explosion was so powerful that the ground shook more than a mile away from the blast.
Pictures show an enormous crater left by the shelling, as explosions blew out windows and destroyed much of the front of the building.
I woke up buried under the rubble
Igor Mozhayev
Officials were last night racing to rescue trapped survivors as temperatures plunge to minus four degrees Celsius (24.8 degrees Fahrenheit).
In a statement, the Mariupol city government said on Telegram: "Today it is known that after the terrorist bombing of a children's hospital in Mariupol by Russian planes, 17 people were injured (children, women, doctors), three died, including one child - a girl.
"Russian troops are purposefully and ruthlessly destroying the civilian population of Mariupol," the statement went on.
"The whole world should know about Russia's crime against humanity, against Ukraine and against the people of Mariupol!"
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Vladimir Putin has been accused of genocide following the "barbaric" attack on the hospital.
It has been reported that Russian forces have fired on 63 hospitals across the country, according to Ukraine’s Minister of Health claims.
He said: “We’ve lost up to 5 medical workers, more than 10 seriously injured.”
On Tuesday, a six-year-old girl died of dehydration in Mariupol after Russian forces cut off the city's water supply.
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Russia has been condemned internationally after its soldiers allegedly failed to respect humanitarian corridors leading civilians away from Ukraine's battered cities.
Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko tweeted the photograph, writing: "This child died of dehydration in Mariupol.
"Three times Russia broke the promise of a humanitarian corridor, shooting missiles at civilians."
She included the Twitter handles of Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as she asked: "Maybe now is time for #NoFlyZoneOverUkraine?"
At least 71 children have been killed in Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a war on February 24, a Ukrainian parliament official said today.
"From the start of the Russian invasion and up to 11:00 am (0900 GMT) on March 10, 71 children have been killed and more than 100 wounded," Lyudmyla Denisova, parliament's point person on human rights, wrote in a Telegram message.
Since the Russian invasion began in Ukraine, its top economic adviser Oleg Utensko has said at least $100bn (£75.9bn) worth of infrastructure and property has been destroyed by Russian troops.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has delivered an address urging Ukraine's partners around the world to deliver solutions based in reality.
He said: "My heart is broken by what the occupiers have done to our cities, to our state.";
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Zelensky also added Russia wants to humiliate the Ukrainian people and "make them kneel and take bread and water from their hands".
"We did not become slaves and we never will - because this is our spirit and this is our destiny," he added.
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