Ukrainian mother in bombed-out Kyiv suburb shares heartbreaking story

A Ukrainian mother in a bombed-out village on the outskirts of Kyiv says she had to bury her son in a carpet after Russian troops attacked.

A Ukrainian mother in a bombed-out village on the outskirts of Kyiv has relived the heartbreaking moment she was forced to bury her son after a brutal Russian offensive.

In video footage shot by the BBC, the grieving mother showed her deceased son’s bedroom after it was hit by an explosive.

“The pain is so bad,” she told the BBC. “No I am all alone. My son was young, only 27 years old. He wanted to stay alive.

She said her son served in the army but was going to spend the day working at the local garage.

She was forced to carry his body back from the street in a wheelbarrow and bury him in their backyard after the barrage stopped.

“I covered the grave with a blanket to protect it from dogs,” she continued. “He isn’t in a coffin. I had to roll him in a carpet.”

“(The Russians) were in jeeps with guns. They killed him and fled. How can I talk to such morons? I want them dead. I want their children to lie like my son.”

The scene depicted an all-too-common experience felt by those remaining in Ukraine. Reports of civilian deaths at the hands of the invading force continue to roll in each day, with officials scrambling to prepare terms for ceasefires across the nation.

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A Ukrainian mother has revealed she had to bury her own son. Picture: BBC

The streets of Bucha were left blackened after a heavy Russian assault.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared that he will only accept “victory” against Russia.

“A victory of truth means a victory for Ukraine and Ukrainians,” Mr Zelensky told Fox News through an interpreter. “The question is when it will end. That is a deep question. It’s a painful question. Besides victory, the Ukrainian people will not accept any outcome.”

“We do not trade our territory. The question of territorial integrity and sovereignty is out of discussion.”

The Ukrainian President added that he has spoken with US President Joe Biden and told him he would like to see the United States included in a security agreement that would provide long-term support for Ukraine to address the possibility Russia would to invade again in the future.

It came as Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba said Russia was behaving “worse than ISIS”. He described the scenes in Bucha - where the bodies of hundreds of civilians were found - as a “deliberate massacre” and the “most outrageous atrocity of the 21st century”.

“Without exaggeration, by what we have seen in Bucha and the vicinity, we can conclude that Russia is worse than ISIS in the scale and ruthlessness of the crimes committed,” Mr Kuleba told reporters in Warsaw, Poland.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said “what happened in Bucha and other suburbs of Kyiv can only be described as genocide”.

Western leaders have also expressed outrage.

As Russian troops withdraw from areas north of Ukraine‘s capital city of Kyiv, Ukrainian forces and the media found evidence of significant numbers of civilian casualties.

“The images reaching us from Bucha, a liberated town near Kyiv, are unbearable,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.

“In the streets, hundreds of civilians cowardly murdered. My compassion for the victims, my solidarity with the Ukrainians. The Russian authorities will have to answer for these crimes.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said “light must be shed” on the “crimes” of the Russian army, and it was important to “document these atrocities”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the images from the Kyiv region were “more evidence of Putin’s war crimes”.

“We will not rest until justice is served,” he said.

Desperately sad story from just outside Kyiv, about a woman called Iryna whose son was killed by Russian soldiers. We were the first outsiders she'd seen since the Russians left her village on Friday. Shot and edited by @leedurant. Produced by @producerkathypic.twitter.com/vKE1tjL1kf

— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) April 3, 2022