Thread by @ZhiZhuWeb

"The bodies of the children all lie here, dumped into this narrow trench hastily dug into the frozen earth of Mariupol to the constant drumbeat of shelling."

apnews.com/article/russia…

"There’s 18-month-old Kirill, whose shrapnel wound to the head proved too much for his little toddler’s body.

There’s 16-year-old Iliya, whose legs were blown up in an explosion during a soccer game ..."

#StandWithUkriane
#ChildrenOfUkraine
apnews.com/article/russia…

"More bodies will come, from streets where they are everywhere and from the hospital basement where adults and children are laid out awaiting someone to pick them up.

The youngest still has an umbilical stump attached."

#StandWithUkriane
apnews.com/article/russia…

"Airstrikes and shells have hit the maternity hospital, the fire department, homes, a church, a field outside a school...

The surrounding roads are mined and the port blocked."

#SaveMariupol
apnews.com/article/russia…

"“Show this to Putin,” he stormed with expletive-laced fury. “The eyes of this child and crying doctors.”

They couldn’t save her.

Doctors covered the tiny body with her pink striped jacket and gently closed her eyes. She now rests in the mass grave."

apnews.com/article/russia…

"A [Russian] bomb exploded. The blast tore through Iliya’s legs.
...

Iliya couldn’t be saved. His father, Serhii, dropped down, hugged his dead boy’s head and wailed out his grief."

#Ukraine
#ChildrenOfUkraine
apnews.com/article/russia…

"“Why? Why? Why?” his sobbing mother, Marina Yatsko, asked in the hospital hallway, as medical workers looked on helplessly.

She tenderly unwrapped the blanket around her lifeless child to kiss him and inhale his scent one last time, her dark hair falling over him."

#Ukraine

"Yet another attempt to negotiate an evacuation failed. A crowd formed at one of the roads leading away from the city, but a police officer blocked their path.

“Everything is mined, the ways out of town are being shelled,” he told them."

apnews.com/article/russia…

"This agony fits in with Putin’s goals. The siege is a military tactic popularized in medieval times & designed to crush a population through starvation & violence, allowing an attacking force to spare its own soldiers the cost of entering a hostile city"

apnews.com/article/russia…

"the sound of Russian fighter jets in Mariupol was enough to send people screaming for cover — anything to avoid the airstrikes they knew would follow, even if they didn’t know where.

The jets rumbled across the sky, this time decimating the maternity hospital."

#Ukraine

It's too heartbreaking to read & try to create a Twitter thread. I just can't finish the article.

Please read the article for yourself (It's free) and look at the photos & videos & think of the people of Ukraine.

#StandWithUkraine
#RussianWarCrimes
apnews.com/article/russia…