Ukraine crisis: Boy, 5, dies days after parents and sister, 10, killed

A five-year-old boy has died in Ukraine just days after his 10-year-old sister and parents were killed trying to flee Kyiv.

Semyon was fighting for his life after his family's car was shot at by Russian soldiers on February 26. He was in a critical condition in hospital for 72 hours, but passed away on Wednesday (local time).

The death of his sister, Polina, shocked the world last week after being one of the first children identified to have been killed in the invasion.

Polina was the middle daughter of vets Anton Kudrin and Svetlana Zapadynskaya. She was in her final year of primary school and loved Harry Potter.

Vladimir Bondarenko, the deputy mayor of Kyiv, shared a photo of the happy looking 10-year-old with pink in her hair.

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"Her name was Polina. She studied in the 4th grade of school in Kyiv. Her and her parents were shot by Russian DRG," he wrote, according to reports.

Mr Kudrin and Ms Zapadynskaya's eldest daughter, 13-year-old Sofia, is still unconscious and in a critical condition, unaware the rest of her family is dead, the UK's The Telegraph reported.

Sixteen children killed so far in Russia-Ukraine conflict

Earlier in the week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 16 children had been killed in the conflict, with the figure more than likely much higher now.

"Again and again, President Putin is going to say that is some kind of operation and we are hitting a military infrastructure," Mr Zelensky said in an address to European Parliament,

"But where are our children? What kind of military factories do they work at? What tanks are they going with?"

On Wednesday, a 16-year-old boy died after an explosion hit the soccer field he was playing on with friends near a school in the Azov Sea city.

A haunting image shows the boy's father, identified as Serhii, weeping over his son, Iliya, whose body is covered in a blood-stained sheet.

Iliya's friends David and Artyom, both 15, were also hit in the explosion, with the Metro reporting their legs may need to be amputated after being"riffled" with shrapnel.

All three boys were taken to hospital, but Iliya died before making it there.

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