A woman collapsed in anguish as she recognised the bodies of her daughter and nine-year-old granddaughter killed in a deadly missile strike on Ukraine’s capital.
Meanwhile, in a TV broadcast – ironically on Russia’s Children’s Day – Vladimir Putin declared youngsters were the “biggest pleasure and happiness”.
The president spoke hours after the little girl, her mother, 34, and a 33-year-old woman died in the 3am attack on Kyiv. More than a dozen, including another child, were injured.
Heartbreaking images showed emergency crews supporting the grandmother after she realised the awful truth that her loved ones were lying dead on the ground. Sobbing uncontrollably, she was then led away gently by medics.
The tragedy in Kyiv’s eastern Desnyanskyi and Dniprovskyi districts comes as Moscow continues to hit Kyiv with almost daily aerial missile and drone attacks.
Ukraine said today’s missile had been intercepted, but the debris landed in a residential area.
The barrage of cruise and ballistic missiles tore through homes and hit a children’s clinic.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the military shot down 10 short-range ballistic Iskander missiles.
Kyiv’s mayor, former world heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, visited devastated areas today and accused Russia of “genocide”.
Experts believe Moscow is trying to damage Ukraine’s air defences before a long-expected counter-offensive by Kyiv.
Casualties continue to mount on both sides. Russian-backed officials in the occupied part of eastern Luhansk region said five people had been killed and 19 injured by Ukrainian shelling at a poultry farm.
The governor of the western Russian border region of Belgorod said at least two people were killed in an attack on the town of Shebekino.
In his Children’s Day address, Putin, 70, said: “What is it, to live for yourself? What does it mean? Perhaps it means to enjoy yourself, to enjoy life. But it looks like those who say it don’t understand that the biggest pleasure and happiness is children.”
Meanwhile, Western experts say Moscow has suffered at least 60,000 casualties in its bid to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
They said overall Russian losses were “well over 200,000” and the anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive could begin within weeks.
Earlier this month, Russia claimed to have captured Bakhmut after about a year of fighting.
A Western official said: “We judge that has likely cost Russia at least 60,000 casualties over the course of the year-long battle.” The source added it was a “conservative estimate” for that area of the front line.
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