This Article is From Apr 05, 2022

"Heartbreaking": Ukrainian Mother Writes Family Details On Toddler's Back

The Russia-Ukraine war has been going on for more than a month, which has led to a high number of civilian casualty.

The image of the Ukrainian child has shocked the internet.

Ukrainian families who fear they will be killed by the advancing Russian forces have begun writing family details on the bodies of their children. The images of this shocking development are going viral on social media.

The photos of these children are being tweeted by many journalists, who highlight the grim reality of the conflict.

"Ukrainian mothers are writing family contacts on the bodies of their children in case they are killed and their child survives. And Europe is still discussing gas," an independent journalist Anastasiia Lapatina wrote on Twitter, posting one such image.

It shows a small Ukrainian girl with a name and a telephone number written by her mother on her back.

The photo was posted by the girl's mother Sasha Makoviy on Instagram three days ago. The post is in local language, but a Google translation shows the woman decided to write the name of her daughter Vera "in case something happens, someone would welcome her as a survivor".

In another photo, Makoviy said the family is safe, but she is still not able to throw away a piece of paper on which same details are written.

Reacting to the toddler's photo, a Twitter user said: "Heartbreaking. There are no words."

Horrifying accounts have emerged from the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for more than a month. Last week, The Guardian carried a report which said that children were being used as "human shields" by Russian forces as they attempted to flee.

The report said that buses full of children are being placed in front of tanks in the village of Novyi Bykiv, not far from Chernihiv.

Then, reports emerged of the discovery of a mass grave and tied bodies shot at close range in Bucha, outside Ukrainian capital Kyiv. 

It led to a global outcry, with US President Joe Biden accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes. "You saw what happened in Bucha," Biden told reporters in Washington on Monday. "This warrants him - he is a war criminal."

The Kremlin has, however, categorically denied any accusations related to the murder of civilians, including in Bucha, where it said the graves and corpses had been staged by Ukraine to tarnish Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the killings "genocide" in a speech from Bucha on Monday.

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