Boy, 5, dies in Ukraine days after sister and parents shot dead by Russian troops

Mar 04, 2022

A five-year-old boy in Ukraine has died in hospital days after his sister and parents were shot dead by Russian troops, according to reports.

The youngster, called Semyon, was travelling in a car with his family when it was attacked as they tried to flee Kyiv on Saturday.

A Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group opened fire on the vehicle, Kyiv’s deputy mayor said, killing Semyon’s 10-year-old sister Polina and parents, Anton Kudrin and Svetlana Zapadynskaya.

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Semyon was taken to Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital, but died from his injuries on Wednesday, a family friend told The Daily Telegraph.

His 13-year-old sister Sofia remains in a critical condition in another hospital, unaware that her entire family has been lost, the newspaper reported.

Polina was the first child victim of the war to be identified – with Ukraine reporting that more than 2,000 civilians have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Speaking to the i newspaper, Mr Kudrin’s friend, Artem Melnyk, said: “The Russians, why do they shoot children and civil people?

“They just want to leave Kyiv and stay alive, and they were attacked. So they died except one child who stayed alive.”

Another family friend, Tatyana Zolotina, described the children as “sweet, funny” and “kind”.

She told the i: “Only one girl remains… we will never forgive Russia and the Russians for their death.”

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Vladimir Putin has been accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine, with former prime minister Gordon Brown calling for the creation of a special tribunal to punish the Russian president.

Heartbreaking images from Ukraine have shown children killed during the conflict, including a six-year-old girl who died after a Russian airstrike, and a father weeping next to the body of his teenage son.

Amnesty International said Russia’s use of widely-banned cluster munitions on a pre-school in northeastern Ukraine “may constitute a war crime”.

Three people were killed, including a child, when the explosives hit the nursery and kindergarten in the town of Okhtyrka on Friday morning as locals took shelter inside, Amnesty said.

Amnesty said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a clear violation of the United Nations Charter and an act of aggression that is a crime under international law.

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