A photo from Instagram has gone viral after a Ukrainian mother showed how she had written her family contact details on the bodies of their children in case they get separated during Russia’s invasion.
The UN estimates that more than four million people have fled Ukraine since the war began in February. Russia has launched brutal attacks across the country, hitting maternity hospitals and bomb shelters, leading to accusations of war crimes.
The terror endured by the Ukrainians has now been put in a new, harrowing light, after a journalist from Kyiv Independent shared a photo of a child with handwriting on her back.
Reporter Anastasiia Lapatina wrote on Twitter: “Ukrainian mothers are writing their family contacts on the bodies of their children in case they get killed and the child survives.
“And Europe is still discussing gas.”
Europe is still in two minds about how quickly countries needs to separate themselves from Russia’s oil and natural gas supplies, with some camps reluctant to cut off such a crucial source of fuel.
Lapatina’s harrowing tweet stems from an Instagram post from Aleksandra Mako, a fellow Ukrainian.
In the caption, she explains that the photograph stems from the earlier days of the war, when she feared something would happen to her daughter – including getting lost in the “blackout” or being abandoned if she herself were to die.
Mako also added another photo of a note she put inside the pocket of her daughter’s jumper with all of her family’s contact details.
She explained in the caption that she still can’t bring herself to remove the card, even though they have left Ukraine.
Mako later added another Instagram post confirming she and her daughter are “absolutely safe”, in the South of France.
According to the Instagram translation, they were “greeted by volunteers and provided accommodation and fully taken care of”.
She also thanked Poland, and France, asking: “I can’t figure out how in our world at the same there can be this pure evil that has invaded our cities and this infinite good that I have [seen in] volunteers and people here in the comments.”