He never made it to the appointment. Now the images that tell the story of her life and her end are touching hearts worldwide. Wearing a blue denim jacket with flowers, Lisa was among 23 people killed, including boys aged 7 and 8, in Thursday’s rocket attack on Vinnytsia. Her mother, Iryna Dmytrieva, was among the many injured. After the explosion, mother and daughter went in different directions. Irina, 33, went to a hospital’s intensive care unit, while Lisa went to a morgue. “She remembered arriving to find her daughter and Lisa was already dead,” Iryna’s aunt, Tetiana Dmytrysyna, told The Associated Press on Friday. “Her mother was robbed of her most valuable possessions.” Shortly before the explosion, Dmitrieva had posted a video on social media showing her daughter struggling to reach the handlebars to push her own stroller, happily riding through Vinnytsia, wearing a denim jacket and white pants, with her hair adorned with barrettes. Another video on social media showed the little girl twirling in a lavender dress in a field of lavender. After the Russian missile attack, Ukraine’s emergency services shared photos showing her lifeless body on the ground next to her blood-stained pram. Videos and photos have gone viral, the latest images and stories from the brutal war in Ukraine are horrifying the world. The wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted that she had met this “wonderful girl” while filming a Christmas video with a group of children who were given large ornaments to paint. “The little mischievous girl then managed in half an hour to draw not only herself, her festive dress, but also all the other children, me, the cameramen and the director… Look at her alive, please,” wrote Olena Zelenska. in a note accompanying the video. When the war started, Dmitrieva and her family left Kyiv, the capital, for Vinnytsia, a city 268 kilometers (167 miles) to the southwest. Until Thursday, Vinnytsia was considered relatively safe. Dmitrieva gave birth to her only daughter at the age of 29. The girl was born with a heart defect but doctors saved her. He also suffered from Down syndrome. “Lisa was a sunny baby,” her great-grandmother recalled. “They say these kids don’t understand or don’t know how to do it all. But this is not true. He was a very bright child. He knew how to draw, he talked, he always helped the adults and he always smiled. Always happy.” For her mother, Lisa was the greatest gift of her life. “He loved her unconditionally,” the great-grandmother said. The blast site has now been cordoned off. People come to leave flowers, candles and teddy bears. Another element in a makeshift shrine is a page from a children’s lesson book. Among the mourners are mothers who were deeply moved by the story of Iryna and Liza Dmytrieva. “Innocent children are dying,” Kateryna Kondratyuk said, breaking down in tears at the scene of the explosion. Meanwhile, Irina is conscious and in intensive care. “She is a fighter. It will go out. We are all praying for her,” says her aunt. Lisa’s father was at the morgue on Friday completing the paperwork to collect his daughter’s body for burial.
Andrew Katell in New York contributed.
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