Liza Dmytrieva was pushing a toy stroller through a park on Thursday, accompanied by her mother. The 4-year-old—who had Down syndrome—was on her way to see a speech therapist at a nearby clinic when Russian cruise missiles struck the city center of Vinnytsia, killing 23 and wounding more than 200, reports the AP. Ukraine’s Emergency Services later posted images (graphic) of Liza’s body beside the stroller and her mother’s severed foot, along with a message calling on the world to “immediately recognize Russia as a terrorist country.”
According to the New York Times, “the visceral nature of the images punched through the too-familiar stream of daily violence directed against civilians by the Russian military.” Liza was laid to rest Sunday in a Vinnytsia cathedral. As the song “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow” played, Liza’s grandmother said, “You loved this song very much, you danced every day. This song sounds for you now," per the Times. Liza’s mother, Iryna Dmytrieva, remains in intensive care, and relatives did not inform her of her daughter’s burial for fear her condition would worsen.
Early in the war, the family fled southwest from Kyiv to the central city of Vinnytsia, which is far from the front lines and has been relatively safe. Per Radio Free Europe, images from the attack showed shattered buildings and bloodstains on cars and pavement. Newsweek says Russia claimed it was targeting a meeting between representatives of the Ukrainian Air Force and foreign arms suppliers, and that "the meeting participants were destroyed." Two other boys, ages 7 and 8, were also killed in the strike. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)
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