This Four-Year-Old Ukrainian Girl With Down Syndrome Was Killed By A Russian Strike Walking To Class
A Russian missile has killed Liza Dmitrieva, a four-year-old girl who had Down Syndrome, and injured her mother after it struck the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday July 14.
A Russian missile has killed Liza Dmitrieva, a four-year-old girl who had Down Syndrome, and injured her mother after it struck the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday July 14.
Liza had been learning to speak and had been on her way to see a speech therapist with her mother when she was killed, according to AP.
Videos recorded by Liza’s mother, 33-year-old Iryna Dmitrieva, which showed her daughter on the morning of the attack, have since gone viral on social media.
A video posted at 9:38 am showed Liza pushing a stroller and talking to her mom as they head to an education center for Liza’s speech therapy.
After the attack, another more gruesome video emerged that showed the young girl dead beside her stroller.
Ukrainian authorities said the attack killed at least 20 people, including another two boys aged seven and eight.
Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, has condemned the attack, calling it “an open act of terrorism,” according to the the Guardian.
Zelensky’s wife, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, referenced the photo in a tweet and also condemned the attack.
Liza’s mother, who lost a leg, was transported to a nearby hospital and remained in intensive care for a few days.
“Our children are being murdered, our soldiers and our people,” Liza’s mother told local news, according to the Guardian.
The family had fled from Kyiv to Vinnytsia when the war started as it had been considered safer until the strike on Thursday, according to AP.
Family members and friends attended Liza’s funeral on Sunday to pay their respects.
“I didn’t know Liza, but no person can go through this with calm,” the priest at the funeral said in tears. “Because every burial is grief for each of us. We are losing our brothers and sisters.”
“We know that evil cannot win,” he added, with his voice trembling.
