A 10-year-old girl was reportedly shot dead after 'bored' Russian soldiers got drunk on alcohol looted from stores. The heartbroken family of Anastasia Stoluk was then left with no choice but to bury the youngster in her garden following the tragedy after being refused permission to take her to the cemetery.
Anastasia, known as Nastya, died following an incident in a village near Kyiv, according to The Mirror. It told how soldiers reportedly reacted to a Ukrainian boy firing a gun into the air by "shooting everywhere they could see".
Her uncle, who was with the youngster at the time, was taken to hospital after the shooting but their family say they have not been able to find out how he is. The soldiers refused to allow Nastya's mother, Luba, to go to the cemetery so she was buried in the yard, her cousin Anya Stoluk, 18, said.
Anya's adoptive mother Vera Dmitrienko told The Times : "People say that the soldiers just got so bored. They looted all the stores, of course they got a lot of alcohol ... and got drunk and started shooting.
“They shot into Nastya's house, she was there with her uncle, and she died immediately. Her uncle was taken to hospital and we still don't have any information from him."
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She said soldiers had started shooting after a Ukrainian teenage boy found a gun and fired it in the air. She added: "The soldiers heard it but since they were so drunk they didn't know where it was from so they just started shooting everywhere they could see. They shot in four houses and in one of those houses was Nastya."
Moscow has called its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation" as distressing photos emerge of bloodied children. One photo shows a little girl covered in blood after she was hit by one of Vladimir Putin's bombs in Ukraine.
Ukrainians are continuing to flee their homes as the conflict escalates, with the Russian military slowly advancing towards Kyiv. In Sumy, a Russian airstrike has left 21 people dead, including two children, as Russian pilots 'dropped 500-kilogram bombs'.
Footage taken at the scene of the shelling shows the devastating aftermath of the attack, with bodies being pulled from the rubble. One of a team of men working to excavate the bodies is seen gently laying a blanket over the face of an unmoving person, before moving away to help elsewhere.
The United Nations (UN) has reported that around 1.5 million people have fled the country since the invasion started. However, many more people are believed to be trapped by the violence.
The UN has recorded 406 deaths and 801 injuries among Ukraine’s civilian population since Russia's invasion began.
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