Ukraine, grandfather finds orphaned granddaughter, taken away by the Russians

She had lost her mother two weeks after birth, and a few weeks ago she also lost her father. But, finally, little Kira, 12, was able to hug her grandfather again, who searched for her for a long time and is the only family member she has left.

On 11 March, the little girl was at her home in Mariupol with her father Eugene, former captain of the Ukrainian national water polo team, and his partner, when the house was bombed. Kira fled to the palace shelter with the woman, but her father was shot to death.

A few days later, Kira managed to call her grandfather, Alexander Obedinsky, and told him that her father was dead and that she, after being sheltered in the shelter, had to run away with her father’s partner “because she was no longer at home. safe”.

While she was running away, however, the little girl “was wounded in the ear, legs and arms by a mine. She was first brought to a village near Mariupol and then to Donetsk in a hospital. He told his grandfather that he saw his father’s body loaded on a military truck: he only kept his cell phone.

The grandfather, meanwhile, never stopped looking for someone who could help him (in Italy a petition was also published on Change.org) to reunite with his granddaughter: «The Ukrainian authorities and all those I could reach. I have knocked on all doors, on the Red Cross, on our government, on everyone“. Until Iryna Vereshchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, called him «and told me that it was possible to get Kira back, but to do that I had to go to Donetsk. He asked me if I was ready, with President Zelensky’s security guarantees. I said yes”.

Alexsandr went “to Poland, from Poland to Turkey, from Turkey to Rostov in Russia and then from Rostov to the Donetsk People’s Republic. I mean, in Donetsk, ”he explained to Guardian. “We spent the night there and in the morning they took me to meet Kira. There was another woman with me. She came too, to take back her niece. ” Recalling the moment he saw Kira again, Alexsandr said: «We were both very moved“.

Then, together, they returned to Kiev, and Kira was admitted to the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital. Her grandfather never talks to her about the death of her father. “She doesn’t like to think about it, and I also don’t want to discuss it unnecessarily. Psychotherapists are working with her. She is fine considering what she has been through“.

Now they think about the future. “I adopted her and now I’m his official guardian, then will live with me, we will be together»Explained the grandfather. “For now we will stay in Chernivtsi (a city in southwestern Ukraine) and I don’t know what the future holds. We will see how life will go. We all need positive emotions now, and so does Kira. ‘

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