A children’s nurse who was attempting to recover her 14-year-old nephew’s body has been killed in an ambush by Russian forces, Ukrainian officials have said.
Arsen, 14, was killed by shrapnel after Russian bombing, according to Ukraine’s foreign ministry.
Due to constant shelling, paramedics were unable to retrieve the teenager from the rubble so his aunt Marina Kalabina rescued his body.
The doctor at the Centre for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, was taking her wounded nephew to a hospital in the village of Kukhari in Kyiv when she was hit in her car by a Russian bullet, Ukraine’s Minister of Healthcare Viktor Liashko said.
She was killed “instantly”, the ministry said.
Surviving family members are now unable to collect either body as the area is under Russian control.
The unnamed nurse had reportedly returned to Ukraine from the safety of Poland to work on the front line.
Ukraine’s Minister of Healthcare Viktor Liashko said: “Today Russian terrorists took the life of a doctor – Marina Kalabina.
“These are non-humans, terrorists, and this should definitely not go unpunished!” he added. “We will not forgive you.”
It came as explosions lit up the sky over Kyiv overnight as Russian forces seized control of the southern port city of Kherson.
Ukraine’s capital was rocked by a series of blasts in the early hours of Thursday after a huge explosion near Kyiv’s central train station.
Russia invades Ukraine - In pictures
In Kherson, the mayor said Russian troops had forced their way into the city’s council building and imposed a curfew on residents.
It is the first city to fall to Russian forces since they invaded eight days ago.
In other developments, the UN refugee agency said one million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, in the swiftest exodus of refugees this century.
