The newest innocent victim of Putin’s war in Ukraine is a four-year-old Down’s Syndrome girl who was slain in her stroller by a Russian cruise missile that also left her mother struggling for her life.
When a Russian Kalibre missile fired from a submarine in the Black Sea fell on top of Liza Dmitrieva and her mother Irina about 10.50 a.m. local time, they were hundreds of kilometres from the closest frontline in the western Ukrainian city of Vinnystya.
The pink stroller that Liza had been seen pushing an hour earlier lay on its side in the middle of the street, covered in blood from the child’s terribly fatal wounds.
Irina, who was in severe condition when she was taken to the hospital, is currently fighting for her life.
In addition, 19 more individuals, including two more children, perished in the incident, which also left 90 people injured, 50 of them were in critical condition.
There are no military targets in the city, according to President Zelensky, who referred to the attack as “an open act of terrorism” carried out by Putin’s “inhuman” army. Russia asserted that it was killing “Nazis.”
Irina expressed her worries for her daughter Liza in a recent social media post, writing that she was “scared to make wishes” for their future and that of their nation.
She described the fifth birthday that young Liza will no longer be able to celebrate by writing: “It was COVID-19 first, then the war.” For the past two years, I have not been able to plan Liza a suitable birthday celebration.
“I’m hoping her fifth birthday will present us with an opportunity!” Making wishes makes me nervous.
I only have dreams about peace and our desired outcomes.
She had tweeted about the progress her daughter had made despite the pandemic and the conflict just six hours before Liza was slain.
Following the assault, President Zelensky posted on social media, saying: “Vinnytsya. City centre is hit by rockets. A young youngster is among the injured and deceased, he posted on Instagram.”
“Every day, Russia kills civilians, including children in Ukraine, and fires rockets at non-military targets to destroy civilian infrastructure.”
“What is this but an outright act of terrorism?” Inhumans. a murderous nation. a nation with terrorism.”
Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister, claimed that Russia had committed “another war crime” in a tweet.
He wrote, “We will prosecute Russian war criminals for every drop of Ukrainian blood and tears.”
After seizing two important cities in late June and early July, Russia’s offensive in the east of Ukraine stagnated.
As a result, it has increased its attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine.
Although the Ukrainian government claims that Putin’s forces are pausing their onslaught, death is still being rained down from afar.
The Kremenchuk mall was destroyed by the first of these attacks on June 27, killing at least 20 people and leaving another 36 people missing who are now assumed dead.
Russia made an effort to downplay the incident, saying it had fired at nearby military objectives such as a factory and railway and that the mall had suffered “collateral” damage as a result of a fire that had spread to the surrounding area.
However, CCTV footage unmistakably captured a Russian anti-ship missile, which was initially intended to destroy US aircraft carriers, striking the structure.
Following that, an attack on an apartment building in Mykolaiv on June 29 resulted in at least eight fatalities, and one in Odesa on July 1 resulted in 18 fatalities.
In one of the single bloodiest attacks on civilians of the war, Russia struck an apartment building in the village of Chasiv Yar on July 9. At least 47 civilians were killed.
Overnight, two residential structures in the Donbas town were struck by bombs, leading to the partial collapse of one and severe damage to the other.
Even though there is little possibility of finding survivors, rescue efforts are still going on. Daily updates are still made regarding the death toll.
The next target was Kharkiv, where a number of missile attacks early on July 11 destroyed a school and numerous other residential structures.
These explosions resulted in at least six fatalities, including a 17-year-old boy and his father, and 31 injuries.
The attack on the office building today is at least the sixth of its kind in a little more than two weeks, and it occurred despite a meeting between European officials and Ukraine’s top war crimes prosecutor to gather evidence for upcoming war crimes prosecutions.
Evidence must be organized and reliable because there are more than 20,000 active war crimes investigations and multiple nations are leading teams, according to officials.
We need an accountability plan, the Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said at a gathering in The Hague, “much as a climate strategy and a COVID strategy.”
He continued that the harrowing descriptions of rape and murder were insufficient to convict the accused.
Since their invasion in February, Russian forces have blasted Ukrainian cities to ashes and left dead bodies in the streets of the towns and villages they have taken.
According to Ukraine, thousands of civilians have perished. Moscow denies intending to target them.
Although the vast majority of allegations recorded by organizations like the United Nations are of alleged atrocities done by Russian invaders and their proxies, there have been rare claims of Ukrainians mistreating Russian detainees.
Uzra Zeya, a representative for the United States, who was present during the meeting, said, “As this meeting takes place, Russian soldiers continue to commit atrocities in Ukraine with terrifying intensity.”
Assaults on schools, hospitals, playgrounds, apartment complexes, grain silos, water and gas facilities, as well as rape, torture, extrajudicial executions, disappearances, and forced deportations are just a few of the war crimes that are being committed every day.
Didier Reynders, the justice commissioner for the European Union, stated that war crimes and genocide suspects from wars in Rwanda, Darfur, Syria, Congo, and the Balkans were remained at large.
According to him, collecting and storing evidence while a conflict is in progress is a “gigantic task” for nations seeking to keep track of atrocities.
There are reasons for hope, according to International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan, as more than 40 states are asking the court to take action against Ukraine. The ICC has dispatched the biggest field investigation team in its 20-year history.
The law cannot stand by in this situation. When the law is designed to defend and promote certain values that are fundamental to mankind, it cannot relax in The Hague.
After the ICC classified Moscow’s 2014 takeover and annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine as an armed conflict, Russia withdrew its support from the organization in 2016.
The Netherlands, the meeting’s host nation, is hoping that Thursday’s Ukraine Accountability Conference will result in an agreement on evidence sharing, a prosecution plan, and providing international war crimes experience to local investigators.
Ukrainian officials have thus far found two Russian servicemen guilty of war crimes since the invasion on February 24.
In what Western nations view as sham trials, Russia’s proxies for separatists have conducted their own trials and executed two British combatants and a Moroccan.