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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Ryan Fahey

Harrowing image shows simple car park graves of mum and son killed by Russians

A mum and son slaughtered by Russian forces have been buried in makeshift graves in the car park outside their apartment block in Ukraine.

Chilling images from Irpin - a strategic town 20 miles north of Kyiv - show the crude wooden grave markers above the resting place of a Ukrainian mother and her boy.

Ukrainian journalist Oleksiy Matsuka posted the picture with the caption: "Irpin. Mother and son are buried in the courtyard of the residential complex in the parking lot."

Civilians have been fleeing bombs and artillery strikes raining down over the city - which has been bombarded by Russian forces for more than seven days.

It is one of several key Ukrainian cities being evacuated amid intensifying shelling.

Another image taken in the city today showed Ukrainian troops carrying an elderly woman to safety among the rubble of razed buildings.

Ukrainian servicemen have been stretchering the elderly out of apartment blocks blown up by Putin's army (AFP via Getty Images)

The woman is seen laying on a stretcher, with two crutches across her body, as the servicemen straddle over collapsed buildings to extract her to safety.

Ukrainian authorities have accused the Kremlin of targetting civilians fleeing their homes amid heavy Russian shelling.

And the mass exodus currently underway could lead to a worst-case scenario of as many as five million refugees fleeing their homeland for sanctuary, Poland's president warned today.

Andrzej Duda told BBC's Sunday Morning show: "According to experts, in an extreme situation, it could be up to five million people.

It's currently unknown how the pair were killed (alexmazuka/Twitter)

"Of course, we are not the only country who is receiving them because Romania, which shares a border with Ukraine, is also getting refugees. Hungary has a border with Ukraine.

"More than half of all refugees who have left Ukraine are in Poland.

"So, if there are five million, just imagine that we get 2.5million."

Meanwhile, a foreign national became another of the growing numbers of civilians slaughtered by Putin's troops.

Poland's president has warned that as many as five million Ukrainians could be displaced by the war (MARCUS YAM/LOS ANGELES TIMES/REX/Shutterstock)

An American journalist has reportedly been shot dead and another injured by Russian forces, according to Ukraine police.

The head of Kyiv region police said one journalist had been killed and another injured in Irpin town close to the capital.

The journalist had previously worked for the New York Times but was not on assignment.

Putin has been accused of targeting civilians as they flee the besieged town (REUTERS)

A tweet by Kyiv police read: "URGENT! In Irpen, the Russian occupiers have just shot the international journalists of the New York Times!

"One killed, one wounded. Now militiamen try to take out the victim from a combat zone."

And now one of Putin's political opponents has predicted the war may spread beyond the Ukrainian border - and that the despot could trigger a nuclear war.

Leonid Volkov, the former chief of staff for jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny, issued a chilling warning over the Kremlin's plans and said he wanted his fellow Russians to make it clear it was "not our war".

A former New York Times journalist was killed in Irpin today (AFP via Getty Images)

Prominent opposition leader Mr Navalny, who has accused Putin of corruption, was poisoned by the Novichok nerve agent in 2020 and later imprisoned on his return to Russia in 2021.

Mr Volkov said Putin was "crazy enough" to use nuclear weapons as the conflict in Ukraine continues to escalate.

He told Sky News's Sophy Ridge on Sunday: "It is now very clear that enormous cost has to be paid to stop this war."

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