The Russian invasion of Ukraine.Photo: ANDREY BORODULIN/AFP via Getty
Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova was 91 when she died in a frigid basement on April 4,according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said she had begged for water and asked, “Why is this happening?”
Larissa and her husband reportedly buried her mother in a seaside park as shelling continued in the city where Obiedkova was born in 1930.
“Mama loved Mariupol,” her daughter told Chabad.org. “She never wanted to leave.”
When Obiedkova was 10 years old, she hid in a basement from Nazis who executed thousands of Jews in Mariupol in 1941, including her mother and her mother’s family, according to Chabad.org.
“Vanda Semyonovna lived through unimaginable horrors,” Rabbi Mendel Cohen, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mariupol, said in the report. “She was a kind, joyous woman, a special person who will forever remain in our hearts.”
Mariupol has been the site of some of the mosthorrific attacksof the war — including the destruction of a theater where residents were sheltering inside and the bombing of a children’s hospital where dozens wereburned to death.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian sites and has claimed some reports involving civilian deaths were faked.
The city’s mayor said earlier this month that more than 10,000 civilians have been killed and the death toll could double to 20,000. Many residents have been without necessities like heat and electricity during a siege on the city, which is situated near the border and has been a key part of Russia’s war strategy.
“We were living like animals,” Obiedkova’s daughter told Chabad.org of sheltering with her in the basement of a heating-supply store.
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“Every time a bomb fell, the entire building shook,” Larissa said. “My mother kept saying she didn’t remember anything like this during the Great Patriotic War [World War II].”
Since her mother died, Larissa and her family have evacuated Mariupol with Rabbi Cohen’s help, according to Chabad.org. She said she does not plan to return.
“I’m so sorry for the people of Mariupol,” Larissa said. “There’s no city, no work, no home — nothing. What is there to return to? For what? It’s all gone. Our parents wanted us to live better than they did, but here we are repeating their lives again.”
Mstyslav Chernov/AP
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
More than 5 million have fled the country as refugees — and half are children,according to the United Nations. Millions more have been displaced inside Ukraine.
With NATO forces amassed in the region, various countries are offering aid or military support to the resistance. Ukraine’s PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyhas called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
