"All our relatives are in heaven": Police evacuate 3 orphaned children from Donetsk Oblast
Police officers have evacuated three orphaned children from the village of New-York in Donetsk Oblast; the children were hiding from daily shelling in a half-destroyed building.
The National Police of Ukraine said that Yana, 11, Denys, 9, and Ania, 7, were left in their family home on their own after their mother passed away from an illness several days ago; their father died several years back. Their house was badly damaged by a Russian shell.
"Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa – all our relatives are now in heaven," Ania said.
The kids endured the loss of their closest relatives against the backdrop of large-scale Russian strikes and shelling.
Pavlo Diachenko, a police officer from the Bilyi Yanhol (White Angel) unit, said that the house where the three siblings lived was located very close to the frontline.
He added that several days ago law enforcement officers were caught in a Russian shelling when they were evacuating civilians from the area.
During Russian attacks, Yana, Denys and Ania would lie in bed and cover themselves with blankets. Denys explained that he and his sisters did not go to the basement because they could be trapped there by debris and rubble.
Ania and Denys said that the first shell crashed in their garden, creating a deep crater. Part of the building was destroyed in another Russian attack later on.
Police officers first made sure the siblings received a medical exam; now they are staying with their cousin’s family in Kyiv Oblast.
Meanwhile, Russia continues to attack the city of Kyiv. During the most recent missile strike, the first explosions occurred minutes after the air-raid warning was issued. A photographer captured a video, in which a group of children headed to a shelter after the air-raid warning was issued. The video showed kids starting to run as they heard the explosions.
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