Heartbreaking detail in gruesome photo from Ukraine massacre
WARNING — DISTRESSING CONTENT: As the world learned about the horrors of what happened in one devastated Ukrainian city, a small and chilling detail in a photo has led to one civilian victim being identified by friends and family.
In Bucha, a village near Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian forces.
When Ukraine reclaimed the village as the invaders retreated, images of the dead on the street and in mass graves caused international outrage and condemnation.
One image of a lifeless, manicured hand caught the eye of Anastasiia Subacheva, a make-up artist from Gostomel, a city just north of Bucha.
“When I saw it, I felt physically like my heart started to break,” Ms Subacheva said of the image.
She told the New York Times she did make-up for many women in Bucha over the last five years, and one woman Iryna Filkina, 52, had reached out to her and asked about make-up classes.
Ms Filkina said she wanted to build up her following on Instagram and asked Ms Subacheva for her help to be more stylish.
When the war broke out in Ukraine, Ms Filkina's daughter Olha Shchyruk fled Bucha.
On March 6, she found out her mother had been shot while coming home from work on her bicycle.
Last Friday, Ms Shchyruk received a video of her deceased mother lying on the ground. That same day was her mother's birthday.
Speaking to the New York Times, she said even without the manicure, she would have known it was her mother. She said she is still looking for her body so she can bury her.
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Writing on Facebook, Ms Subacheva said she last taught her friend on February 23. She hugged her goodbye and told her to take care of herself.
"She was a treasure, she felt me and my pains. It hurts so much that I didn't feel her pain."
Thousands killed or injured in Ukraine
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent war have seen more than four million people flee the country.
Thousands of people have been killed or injured, Russia's attack has reduced cities to rubble and a quarter of Ukraine's population is now homeless.
President Vladimir Putin has been condemned by world leaders for the war and Russia has been hit with sanctions, crippling the local economy.
Russia has previously acknowledged its attack has not progressed as quickly as it wanted, but on Thursday (local time) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov lamented the rising death toll.
"We have significant losses of troops," he told Sky News.
"It's a huge tragedy for us."
Russia has denied targeting civilians in the attack on Ukraine and claims the bodies in Bucha were staged to justify sanctions against Moscow and derail peace negotiations. Residents on the ground have called it lies.
with Reuters
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