Mourners in central Ukraine buried a four-year-old girl who was killed by a Russian missile strike in the city of Vinnytsia last week, as officials and analysts warned that Moscow’s operational pause of recent days had ended, signaling more deaths and more pain.
The killing of Lisa Dmitrieva, who had Down syndrome, as she was pushed in a wheelchair through a crowded square was reported around the world, becoming a poignant symbol of the heavy civilian cost of the Russian invasion.
Wearing a crown of white flowers, Lisa was laid to rest on Sunday as an Orthodox priest broke down in tears and told weeping relatives that “evil cannot win”.
Lisa’s grandmother, Larisa Dmitrieva, caressed the child as he lay in an open casket with teddy bears in Vinnytsia’s 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral. “Look, my flower! Look how many people came to you,” said Larissa.
Lisa’s father, Artem Dmitriev, stood silent, tears streaming down his face.
Relatives and friends paid their respects to four-year-old Lisa in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, on Sunday. Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
The funeral took place as footage emerged of the girl’s badly injured mother, Irina, visibly distraught and speaking to a local TV channel after regaining consciousness.
Lying in a hospital bed, with a video of her daughter visible on her phone, she told reporters: “The world doesn’t care. He sees what’s going on, but he doesn’t protect us. How many times have we wanted to close the sky? And the world is only watching how Ukraine is being killed. Our children are being killed, our soldiers and our people.
“Save us from this tyrant,” she said, referring to Vladimir Putin, “because after us he will go further and destroy everything.”
Twenty-two other people were killed in the attack and one person is still missing.
As Lisa was buried, Russian missiles and rockets continued to pound Ukrainian cities amid warnings that a renewed offensive by Moscow could target the region around northeastern Kharkiv – from where Russian troops had partially withdrawn – as well as the eastern Donetsk region, which seen as the main focus of the Kremlin.
During a visit to the front lines this weekend, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered troops to “further strengthen the actions of units in all operational areas.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged his people not to fall for Russia’s attempts to scare them with warnings of imminent terrifying missile attacks, which he says are aimed at dividing Ukrainian society.
“It is clear that no Russian missiles or artillery will be able to break our unity or divert us from our path to a democratic, independent Ukraine,” he said in his overnight video address to the nation on Saturday. “And it is also clear that Ukrainian unity cannot be broken by lies or intimidation, forgeries or conspiracy theories.”
Ukrainian officials reported an increase in Russian airstrikes, including missiles fired by strategic bombers over the Caspian Sea.
“These are not just missile strikes from the air and the sea,” said Vadim Skibitsky, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence.
“We are seeing shelling all along the contact line, all along the front line. Tactical aviation and attack helicopters are actively used. It is clear that preparations are currently underway for the next stage of the offensive.
Ukraine’s military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive on Slavyansk, a symbolically important Ukrainian-held city in the eastern Donetsk region.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that Russia was strengthening its defense positions in areas it occupies in southern Ukraine following pressure from Ukrainian forces and promises from Ukrainian leaders to push Russia out.
Ukraine says at least 40 people have been killed in Russian shelling of urban areas over the past three days as the war launched by Putin on February 24 intensifies.
Rockets hit the northeastern town of Chuhuyev in Kharkiv Oblast on Friday evening, killing three people, including a 70-year-old woman, and wounding three others, regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said.
“Three people lost their lives – why? For what? Because Putin went crazy?” said Raisa Shapoval, 83, a distraught resident sitting in the ruins of her home.
To the south, more than 50 Russian Grad missiles hit the Dnieper River town of Nikopol, killing two people who were found in the rubble, Governor Valentin Reznichenko said.
On Sunday, more Russian missiles hit industrial facilities in the strategic southern city of Nikolaev, a key shipbuilding center at the mouth of the Southern Bug River. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Mykolaiv has faced regular Russian missile strikes in recent weeks as Moscow tries to soften Ukrainian defenses with the aim of cutting off Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast all the way to the Romanian border.
Early in the campaign, Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attempts to capture Nikolaev.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russian missiles destroyed a depot for Harpoon anti-ship missiles supplied to Ukraine by NATO allies, a claim that could not be independently confirmed.
The Defense Ministry also said its aircraft shot down a Ukrainian MI-17 helicopter near the eastern city of Slavyansk and an SU-25 jet in the Kharkiv region.
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Moscow, which calls the invasion a “special military operation” to demilitarize its neighbor and root out nationalists, says it is using precision weapons to degrade Ukraine’s military infrastructure and protect its own security. Russia has repeatedly denied that it attacked civilians.
Kyiv and the West say the conflict is an unprovoked attempt to retake a country that broke free from Moscow’s rule with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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