The shell entered through the roof and burst right above the bedroom. The infernal mix of shell fragments and attic debris hit the bed under which Stas, 12, and his father were taking cover. The bed saved their lives but the boy lost part of his skull.
Their family, which once lived near Donetsk, has been running from the war since 2014 after the Russian orcs scared four-year-old Stas so much that he had a speech disorder. But the war followed in their footsteps.
First, they moved to Kramatorsk, which replaced the occupied Donetsk as the regional capital. When the full-scale invasion began, the family moved to a village near Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast. However, after an enemy shell hit the house next to the one they lived in, they had to move to their neighbors’ house. The next evening, this house got under Russian shelling, too, and Stas was terribly injured.
He is currently in a Kharkiv hospital. First, he did not recognize his relatives but finally recalled his mother. He also tries to stand up. Still, his condition is very serious as the boy has lost a fifth of his skull – from the forehead almost to the occiput.
Unfortunately, what happened to Stas is not an exception. Less than two weeks ago, in Kyiv, a seven-year-old girl slept in her bed until a Russian cruise missile stopped her sweet dreams forever. Later, a six-year-old girl was found under the debris of a house ruined by the Russians in Ochakiv, Mykolaiv Oblast. She also had been in her bed when the Russian missile came to “demilitarize” and “denazify” her bedroom.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the war has taken the lives of about 350 Ukrainian children, and about 650 have been wounded. And this is only what has been officially confirmed up to date.
Russia’s crimes should be never forgiven.
