A 14-year-old girl passed away in her mother’s arms after she was fatally wounded by flying shrapnel in a Ukrainian drone attack.
Young Irina, whose last name was not revealed, died just moments after she was hit and seriously wounded in her head and abdomen by shrapnel during a drone attack in the village of Rozdolne, Crimea on 20th July.
The deadly incident occurred while Irina was out meeting her friends in the early morning, apparently to say goodbye before going on a family vacation.
She snuck out of her home at around 5:00am and she and her friends met at the village’s centre.
As the sun began coming out, the group dispersed and Irina was about to walk back to her house located only a few feet away.
Meanwhile, her mum woke up only to find her daughter’s bed was empty and had a shark plushie placed under the covers.
She began calling out for her through one of the windows and apparently spotted Irina standing nearby.
The mum only managed to yell out: “Run home!” before the village square erupted in an explosion.
Both her parents immediately ran out into the street to find Irina heavily wounded and covered in blood.
Her mother held her in her arms as the young girl died from her injuries.
A friend of Irina’s told local media: “Very creepy. I know that Ira did not have time to cross the square, the fragments hit her right in the head …
“And her mother saw her daughter’s death from the window. I myself was already far away at that moment.”
Desperate, her parents rushed her to a local hospital, but the girl was already unconscious and had stopped breathing.
Doctors could do nothing but declare her dead.
Irina left behind a group of devastated friends, her parents and a younger brother.
They will remember the eighth-grade schoolgirl as one who was incredibly kind and always there for others, local media relayed.
After the attack of the Ukrainian drone, Crimean authorities declared a state of emergency in the village of Razdolnoe.
Several civilian objects were damaged in the village, including a shop, a court building and a children’s art centre. Many homes were left with shattered windows.
The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, assured that the family would be provided with all the necessary support.
Sergei Aksyonov said: “As a result of an attack by an enemy UAV in one of the settlements in the north-west of Crimea, four administrative buildings were damaged.
“Unfortunately, not without casualties – a teenage girl died. I express my sincere and deep condolences to family and friends. The family will be provided with all the necessary support.”
This comes a few days after Ukraine began a counteroffensive in occupied Crimea by launching several drone attacks.
The attacks had destroyed a bridge connecting the occupied territory with the Russian mainland on 18th July.
