A Ukraine family were forced to bury their 10-year-old daughter in their garden after she was shot dead by “drunk Russian soldiers”.
Mother Luba was left distraught after Anastasia Stoluk, known as Nastya, was killed in a village near Kyiv.
Russian soldiers allegedly started “shooting everywhere they could see” after reports that a Ukrainian boy fired a gun in the air. Nastya was caught In the crossfire and died instantly, according to the Mirror.
Nastya’s 18-year-old cousin Anya Stoluck, said the troops refused Luba’s request to bury her daughter in the local cemetery, forcing them to dig her grave in the garden instead.
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."
Dmitrienko 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.
Horrifying images of Putin's unjustified war have shown countless civilian deaths - including innocent children.
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 small bodies being pulled from the rubble and blood-splattered rocks.
One of a team of men working to excavate the bodies is seen gently laying a blanket over the face of an unmoving body, before moving away to help elsewhere.
A video of the scene, too graphic to show, was shared to Twitter by Ukraine ’s Ambassador to Austria, Olexander Scherba, who described it as the “Barbaric bombardment” of a residential area in Sumy on Monday night.
“18 dead civilians. Many children,” he wrote.
Sumy authorities later confirmed the death toll from the strike now sits at 21.
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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