Iryna from Vinnytsia documents life with her little daughter Liza on Instagram. A video shows both on a walk. Shortly thereafter, the Russian rockets hit. The four-year-old is dead, the mother is fighting for her life.
In Vinnytsia to the west, actually far away from the heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine, Iryna and her four-year-old daughter Liza feel safe. On Instagram, both pose in purple dresses in front of a lavender field, the profile picture shows the mother and daughter with the Ukrainian flag on their cheeks. Russian missiles destroy their lives forever. At least twenty civilians die when the city is shelled, including Liza. Her mother loses a leg in the attack and is fighting for her life in the hospital.
Just before the rockets hit, an Instagram video posted by Iryna gives the semblance of normalcy. It shows mother and daughter taking a walk together, little Liza pushes her pram herself. She wears a white flower in her hair and smiles at the camera. According to the display it is 9.38 a.m.
A few moments later, just after 11 a.m., what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls an "act of terrorism" happened. The rockets are aimed at a cultural center, debris is thrown onto the street, cars are on fire. Liza is also hit. A shot circulating on social media shows the four-year-old lying lifeless in her overturned stroller, with a severed foot next to her.
The "Guardian" quotes a friend of Iryna's from a local newspaper. "She's my best friend. We both have 'sunny' children," says Lidia Voitenko, using a Ukrainian expression for children with developmental problems. "We rented an apartment together." Iryna was conscious when she was taken to the intensive care unit, Voitenko reports. "But Liza died on the spot. That's all I can say. It's too difficult."
The sudden death of the little girl also moves the Ukrainian First Lady. Olena Selenska knew Liza personally, she writes on Twitter. "We met while recording a Christmas video." Selenska tells how Liza mixed up the filming and painted everyone present with paint. "Look at them alive. I cry with their loved ones."
