A grief-stricken dad whose son was killed in a shelling raid still had the blood on his hands as he confronted a captured Russian soldier at the hospital.
Vitalii Seleveni showed the blood of his 15-year-old son Dennis to the Russian, who had his hands tied behind him, after the teen had died of his injuries in Kharkiv.
Dennis was with his parents and other workers helping to evacuate animals from a Ukraine zoo when a bomb landed nearby.
He would typically help feed the animals and he was in a group who were taking them out of the Feldman Ecopark, which had been bombed, when he suffered severe injuries.
Three employees of the Ecopark were also killed in the explosion.
Dennis had serious wounds to his legs including a gaping cut to his thigh, and later, 30 minutes after arriving in hospital, he became the fourth victim.
When his dad Mr Seleveni walked out of the hospital in a state of shock he saw a blind-folded Russian soldier who had been captured in the attack.
And he thrust his hands covered in his son’s blood in front of the soldier, who had the tape around his eyes removed, showing him what he had done.
Oleksandr Feldman, a Ukrainian MP, who is a founder of Ecopark, broke the news on Facebook that the boy had died during the shelling, reported Ukrinform.
"Today, the sixth volunteer has died during the final stage of an attempted evacuation of African buffaloes. This was a boy born in 2008. The people who were with him are seriously injured, surgeries are now underway, so doctors are fighting for the lives of each one of them,” Mr Feldman said.
He added that two Russian soldiers were brought to the hospital together with the wounded.
“Two Russian soldiers were brought simultaneously with them. It remains unclear how they got to the park in the first place. They destroyed all the vehicles in which the guys arrived," he said.
The zoo, which is based in the north east of Kharkiv, in the Derhachiv district, has been in the line of fire for the Russian military since the start of the war.
After the attack some of the animals escaped from their enclosures while other including white tigers, panthers and jaguars were killed, it is reported.
The animals were in the process of being transported under fire to safer locations in other Ukrainian cities. A white tiger was evacuated on April 24, while a Himalayan bear left the zoo on April 29.
Two other employees of the zoo were shot dead by Russian soldiers in early March and there bodies were found on the park’s premises, reported Ukrinform.
