Among the children’s swings and abandoned toys: Kryvyi Rih mourns the killed and fights for wounded children after a missile attack

They went out for a walk on an April evening, when it was still light outside and the air already smelled of spring. Children on swings, mothers on benches, neighbors say hello, grandmothers read the news on their phones. All this is the everyday life of a neighborhood in the center of Kryvyi Rih. This day, April 4, was no different from the others. And it was in this everyday life that on April 4, around 6:50 p.m., a Russian rocket fell. No warning, no signal and no chance. Its debris killed 18 people, including nine children.

The children’s playground, which became a place of mass death

The blow came in the very center of the residential area. The Iskander cluster rocket completely destroyed a part of the houses, the road and the place where children used to ride bicycles, go down slides and play ball. The rocket did not miss anyone. The debris hit the small bodies so much that many of them did not even have time to understand what had happened.

At the scene of the tragedy, there are the same benches where the parents were sitting yesterday. The same sandbox, but today there are flowers, toys, lit candles in it. People bring teddy bears, school backpacks, put blankets. The bodies of the dead were covered with them the day before. Traces of blood remained on the asphalt – they don’t have time to wash them off, because residents come here again and again. They stand in silence. And silence is louder than any shout.

Photo: suspilne.media

Grief-stricken parents

In one of the yards, very close, lies a covered body. They are not in a hurry to take him away – he is a son. He was 15. His mother and father were with him. They hold his hand and do not take their eyes off it.

“My kitty is sweet, my little lady, my paw”, – repeats the mother.

That’s all she manages to say. Everything else is in tears and trembling. She doesn’t cry, but talks like she used to before going to bed. And this moment is not a scene from a movie, but the reality of Kryvyi Rih.

Photo: suspilne.media

Other residents are crying. Some in voice, others in verse, because everyone has their own.

“These are children. Why should it be so? They haven’t seen anything yet. Just started living. And now – like this. We are being killed. And nobody does anything. What is all this for?” says a woman holding a backpack with a dinosaur in her hands.

The boy from the next door had the same one. Now he lies next to the flowers.

After the experts completed the first stages of debris removal, a moment of silence was held at the site. The silence was mournful, lingering, heavy, the kind you feel physically. People stood motionless. Someone squeezed the child’s hand, someone put their hands on their chest, someone just stood and did not take their eyes off the place where the kids were still running yesterday.

In hospitals are those who survived, but live in pain

Medics report that at this moment there are more than 60 wounded, including children. Many of them are in extremely serious condition. Those who survived are still fighting for their lives. Doctors say:

“Injuries by debris led to cranial and other injuries with internal damage to organs. These children have complex injuries, and not only physical ones. This is something that stays forever. And not only in them, but also in us. Those are the nights during operations that you will never forget.” – admits one of the doctors.

“Hiding children is the worst thing. This is something that should not happen in principle. And you know, what they write about us… That we are some Ukrainian Nazis… What, excuse me? You better look at yourself,” — he says a woman standing near the playground with a lamp in her hands.

Her granddaughter was here yesterday. Now she is gone…

A rocket attack on the center of a residential area of ​​Kryvyi Rih destroyed not only yards and houses, but also the fragile security space in which the everyday life of the residents was still held. The death of nine children was the turning point. They cannot be returned, but next to the names of the dead are the names of those who survived and are still fighting for their lives in hospitals.

This is not the first strike on a civilian object and not the first missile that hit the site. Ukraine continues to lose its children. This is not an exceptional tragedy, but one of many episodes of the war that has been going on for more than three years. And while it lasts, such losses will be repeated every day in different cities. This war must be ended immediately! And not in political statements, but in reality.