An American man who was killed in an attack by Russian forces on the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv shared harrowing details about the deteriorating situation on Facebook before his death.
James Whitney Hill, often called Jimmy or Jim by friends, died aged 68 on Wednesday when Russian troops launched heavy artillery attacks on unarmed civilians.
He had travelled with his Ukrainian partner Ira to Chernihiv in December so that she could receive treatment for multiple sclerosis, friends of Mr Hill told an Idaho broadcaster this month. They were trapped in a hospital in the city as Russia’s attack intensified.
Mr Hill documented his experience in a string of haunting Facebook posts, writing that his wife had been admitted to the intensive care unit and they wanted to leave but were unable to find safe passage.
“We could try a breakout tomorrow but Ira’s mom doesn’t want to,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday. “Each day people are killed trying to escape. But bombs falling here at night. Risk either way … I only have wifi a few hours a day. We have enough food for a few days.”
The following day, just hours before his death, Mr Hill posted: “Intense bombing. still alive.”
Despite the growing risk beyond the hospital walls, Mr Hill ventured out on Wednesday in search of food, his sister Katya Hill told CNN.
“As things were deteriorating in the city ... my brother was the one that was going out to the store to bring back what food he could find,” she said.
Mr Hill was waiting in a bread line with several others when they were targeted by Russian gunfire, his other sister Cheryl Hill Gordon said in a Facebook post. After the attack subsided he was found dead with a US passport on his person, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The State Department confirmed the death of an American on Thursday but did not provide any details about the circumstances of the attack.
“We offer our sincerest to the family on their loss,” a spokesperson said. “Out of respect to the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment.”
Mr Hill had been teaching throughout Europe, mostly in Ukraine, for the last 25 years, his sister Cheryl Hill Gordon toldThe Journal. His Facebook page said he taught at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.
Cheryl Hill Gordon said her brother - who had two children and loved baseball and fishing - had been home for Christmas but had returned to Ukraine to help his wife Ira get treatment.
“We want to take a family with children out with us. It’s not safe here. But it’s not safe,” Mr Hill wrote in a social media post 13 March.
The Journal identified Mr Hill’s partner as Iryna Teslenko, but he called her Ira, noting in a social media post that she was too weak to travel.
“Not allowed to take photos. Spies throughout city. Bombing has intensified, no way out,” he added on 15 March.
“Intense bombing! Still alive. Limited food. Room very cold. Ira in intensive care.”
Sibling Katya Hill said her brother only left Ira to look for food. She said she last spoke to him on 5 March.
“When the bombing increased, the men in the hospital were asked if they wanted a gun. And Jim said, ‘No, I’m not carrying a gun.’ And he said, ‘But if you give me a fishing rod and some bait, I’ll try to catch some fish.’ They did not get his joke,” she said.
“My brother had the sense of humor in the family, and he retained his humor, except for the last couple of days that we were in contact. I think he was realizing how bad it was getting,” she added.
“He just was not going to leave Ira,” she told The Journal. “He would never abandon her.”
Katya Hill said that as food and other basic necessities grew more and more scarce, he kept a stash of chocolate with him in the hospital and handed it out “whenever somebody was depressed, or just needed a little encouragement”.
At least 53 civilians have been killed in the frontline city of Chernihiv on Wednesday, Ukraine’s UN ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told a Thursday meeting of the UN Security Council.
Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya denied claims that Russian forces targeted a bread line in Chernihiv, as well as reports of strikes on a maternity ward and theatre in Mariupol.
“There are no Russian military in Chernihiv,” he said. “I think this is the consequences of just distributing weapons to whoever wants to have them in Ukraine.”
His false denial comes as Russia continues to baselessly claim its forces are not targeting civilians in what they call a “special operation” in Ukraine.
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