The husband shares a heartbreaking story: – Killed with the boys as witnesses

– I still can’t understand it. My children would now grow up without a mother.

On the phone from the hospital, Andrei talks about what happened on March 1. His voice breaks.

Three weeks ago, he had the worst nightmare of his life. On what was previously the road to Lviv, should now be the road to security.

But then something happens that will not happen at all.

Behind the wheel sits his wife Svetlana with Andrei at her side. Their two children are sitting in the back seat. Eight-year-old Artem and ten-year-old Miroslav have lived in uncertainty about the Ukraine they would grow up in since the Russian invasion.

While they were sitting in the car, they suddenly heard a bang. A Russian sniper hits Svetlana, who lies lifeless in her husband’s lap. In a short time, a family of four becomes a family of three.

– It’s very appalling, says Andrey.

Andrey fears new attacks, and quickly checks if the kids are doing well. Then the father gives a message to the sons that he never thought he would have to give.

– I told them to play the dead. I didn’t know if snipers were looking for them. This is not only a fascism, it is a Russian fascism. He says it is much worse.

Kyiv Independent State the situation first.

– I didn’t have time to think

How do you feel when you tell your children that they have to play the dead, while their mother died in the car?

– They were very brave. They realized they had no choice. I can’t imagine what I would have done if I were their age in this situation.

While Andrei was trying to hide his eldest son, he was shot in the leg.

– I did not have time to think, I had to save my children.

With gunshot wounds to his leg, he tried to hide his youngest son, Miroslav. The son was shot in the leg and fell.

face the Russians

Just seconds after the mother was killed and the children were shot, Russian tanks arrived.

– They checked whether everything was OK. When they saw what happened…

Andrei takes a deep breath.

– They realized that they had assaulted a woman and two young children.

Andrei says he spoke to the soldiers and wondered why they would do such things.

– We had no weapons, we had nothing. They said it was an order and they had to follow it, he said.

While Andrei was talking to the soldiers, his wife was lying dead in the car. He calls his wife’s parents and asks if they can take his deceased daughter. Andrei wants confirmation from the soldiers.

– They had to confirm that snipers would not shoot her parents when they took her out. The soldiers stayed near the car and blocked the road until they could get it out.

– That was our goal

When Dagbladet spoke with Andriy, he was in a hospital bed in a hospital in the west of the city Khmelnitsky.

In the next room is his youngest son, who is being treated for gunshot wounds to the leg. Andrey says they have been told the treatment could take up to eight months.

Andrei’s son-in-law takes care of his eldest son.

We regularly talk on the phone about what we’ve been through. He understands it more than the youngest. Andrei says he is better off with my brother-in-law than he used to be here.

When asked how he sees the future, his voice breaks again.

– My wife and I dreamed that they would get a good education and lead a happy life. He concludes that this is just my dream now.

Hundreds died

On Sunday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights announced that at least 902 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on February 24.

In addition, at least 1,459 people were injured, largely as a result of artillery, missile and air strikes, he wrote. Reuters.

Earlier Sunday, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said Sky News The civilian death toll is much higher than the death toll among the country’s military forces.