VINNYTSIA, Ukraine (AP) – Beautiful and serene in a wreath of white flowers, 4-year-old Liza who was killed by a Russian rocket attack was buried in central Ukraine on Sunday when an Orthodox priest burst into tears and told crying relatives that ” evil cannot win.”
Liza, who had Down syndrome, was on her way to a speech therapist with her mother when Russian missiles slammed into the city of Vinnytsia, far from the front lines, on Thursday. At least 24 people were killed, including Liza and two boys, ages 7 and 8, and more than 200 were injured, including Liza’s mother.
‘Look, my flower! Look how many people came up to you,” said Liza’s grandmother, Larysa Dmytryshyna, caressing Liza as she lay in an open casket of flowers and teddy bears in Vinnytsia’s 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral.
Liza’s father, Artem Dmytriev, stood still, tears streaming down his face.
Liza’s mother, 33-year-old Iryna Dmytrieva, was in an intensive care unit in serious condition. The family had not told her that Liza was being buried on Sunday, fearing it could affect her condition.
“Your mother hasn’t even seen how beautiful you are today,” Dmytryshyna said, crying.
Helena Sydorenko, an old friend of the family, said that Liza’s mother “put a lot of effort into socializing Liza.”
“She wanted her child to have a full life,” Sydorenko added.
When the war started, Dmytrieva and her family fled from Kiev, the capital, to Vinnytsia, a city 270 kilometers (167 miles) to the southwest that was considered relatively safe until Thursday.
Shortly before the explosion, Dmytrieva had posted a video on social media showing her daughter struggling to get to the wheel to push her own pram, merrily walking through Vinnytsia, dressed in a denim jacket and white pants, her hair decorated with a hairpin.
After the Russian rocket attack, Ukrainian emergency services shared photos of her lifeless body on the ground next to her bloodstained pram. The first lady of Ukraine remembered how cheerful and happy the little girl was when she met her. The videos and photos have gone viral, the latest footage of the brutal war in Ukraine to horrify the world.
Liza’s closest relatives sat on both sides of the coffin, and many more crowded Vinnytsia’s Orthodox Cathedral to pay their last respects to the girl.
“I did not know Liza, but no one can calmly go through this,” said Orthodox priest Vitalii Holoskevych, bursting into tears. “Because every funeral is sorrow for all of us. We are losing our brothers and sisters.”
He paused and continued in a trembling voice: “We know that evil cannot win.”
Later, in a windy cemetery, relatives and friends say goodbye to Liza under a gray sky.
“You loved this song very much, you danced every day. This song now sounds to you,” said Dmytrushyna, Liza’s grandmother.
The song was “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow”, which has become a symbol of resistance in Ukraine after the Russian invasion.
“It is suffering and despair. There is no forgiveness for them,” said Ilona, another friend of the family.
A 7-year-old boy killed in the same Russian airstrike was also buried on Sunday with his mother in a village near Vinnytsia. They were at a medical center when the missiles hit the building. Another boy killed in the same airstrike will be buried in Vinnytsia on Monday.
____
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
