BBC journalist shares stories of Ukrainian children caught in crossfire
A BBC journalist reporting from the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia has shared the horrifying stories of those injured by Russian shelling in Mariupol.
Journalist Wyre Davies visited the Regional Children’s Hospital in Zaporizhzhia, where hundreds of people have been evacuated and continue to be treated by doctors.
The children there include Artem, a two-year-old who was wounded by shrapnel from a Russian shell that also injured his parents and grandparents as they tried to flee Mariupol.
15-year-old Masha (pictured above), who lies next in the bed next to Artem, is being treated after a shell tore apart her leg, forcing doctors to amputate it.
Meanwhile … in #Ukraine, there’s still a war going on. Civilians are suffering & cities are being flattened. With no ceasefire in sight, join me & my bbc colleagues this week across @BBCNews for continuing coverage on #tv, #radio & #online.
— Wyre Davies (@WyreDavies) March 28, 2022
Davies spoke to Dr Yuri Borzenko, the head of the Children’s Hospital, and is one the several doctors who asked the journalist to tell their stories.
“I hate Russia,” Dr Borzenko said. “The girl who lost her leg (Masha) was so traumatised she wouldn’t eat or drink for days. She couldn’t mentally handle what had happened. We had to feed her intravenously.
“Another boy, a six-year-old with shrapnel in his skull described - without any tears or emotion - watching his mother burn to death in their car after it was hit. Two days later he said ‘dad buy me a new mum, I need someone to walk me to school’.”
Davies also met Vladimir, a “grief-stricken” father who lost his 26-year-old daughter and four-year-old granddaughter after a shell landed near the shelter where they were seeking refuge.
“I looked at the ground and there lay my little granddaughter with her head completely torn to pieces,” Vladimir told Davies.
“She lay there without a single breath and right next to her was my daughter with her legs fractured, open fractures.”
But he has tried to stay strong for his second daughter, Diana, who was also critically wounded but was able to undergo emergency surgery.
Davies’ story comes as other survivors continue to speak out about their experiences with journalists and through social media, including young people such as Valerish.
The Ukrainian photographer is among the many young women taking to TikTok to share their experiences during the ongoing crisis while also educating others on how to help.
“Every day I live with a hope that tomorrow war will end, but everything is getting worse,” she captioned one video of her in front of a shelled apartment building.
“I see how my city was wiped out of existence and how Russian troops killed Ukrainian civilians.”
In another post, she wrote about meeting the mayor of Milan and about her native city of Chenihiv.
“We talked about our ‘love’ for Russia and how we can help my native city Chernihiv,” she wrote.
“I believe that the volunteer organisation ‘Palyanitsya’ (which Valerish volunteers with) from this moment have more power than before.”
Image: Getty Images