‘I hope they didn’t mean to hurt me’ – Heartbreaking words of 9 year old Ukrainian girl shot by Russians
Surgeons in Kyiv had to amputate a nine-year-old girl’s arm to save her life after she was shot while fleeing her home.
The girl, known only Sasha, is recovering in hospital. She was fleeing from fighting in the Kyiv suburb of Hostomel with her father, mother and sister last week when the family car was hit by bullets.
Her father was killed and the other three escaped into the street before taking shelter in a cellar.
Sasha drifted in and out of consciousness for two days before she was carried to a nearby hospital on a make-shift stretcher by volunteers waving a white flag.
Speaking from her hospital bed Sasha said: ‘I don’t know why the Russians shot me. I hope it was an accident and that they didn’t mean to hurt me.
‘I was shot in the arm. I ran after my sister. My mum she fell over. I thought it was the end. But she was not dead she was just sheltering from the gunfire. She was hiding.
‘Then I lost consciousness. Someone carried me to a cellar. I was given some treatment there. And then some people carried me on a towel to the hospital.’
He explained: ‘This girl was brought to the Central Irpin Hospital with terrible injuries.
‘She had been shot while she was evacuating from Gostomel with her parents.
‘Her father was shot dead as he drove them away from the fighting in his car.
‘The doctor discovered gangrene was spreading up her arm from her injury.
‘He had to amputate her left arm to save her life.
‘The girl was then transferred to a private clinic Kyiv.
‘She is one of a number of children who have suffered terrible injuries. All of them have lost at least one of their parents.’
Now the youngster, who celebrated her ninth birthday the day before Russia invade on 24th February, has asked for a new pink artificial arm that is covered in flowers.
The nurse who treated Sasha on Ward 5 of the Central Irpen Hospital, in Bucha, has praised her for her strength and courage.
She said: ‘The first thing Sasha said to me was; ‘please be honest do I have a left hand or not?’
‘I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know whether not to say anything, to lie or to tell her the truth.
‘What do you say to a child who is in pain but who knows that she put up with it.
‘She asked if she would be healthy and if she can have a new pink artificial arm coloured with flowers.
‘She is so strong. She does not cry because she knows only weak people cry.
‘She thanked us for saving her life and caring for us.’
The nurse added: ‘I am so angry and I feel so much hate towards whoever shoots and maims children.’