The Vinnytsia Tragedy Part 2
Another Commentary Coming from
An American in Ukraine
by Dr. E. C. Olson, Mission Director
Russians Bombs Target Civilians in Vinnytsia and a Tragedy within a Tragedy: the murder of Elizaveta Dmytriyeva
Part 2 of 2
Olha’s death also illuminated another stark reality of this Russian missile attack – being the fact that her body was at least identifiable. Government reports indicate that the vast majority of the victims had to be identified through the use of forensic DNA analyses because the force of the blasts was so devastating.
Among the 26 Ukrainians murdered by this Russian missile attack, it has been reported that anywhere from 4-5 were children, and among those murdered children was one little girl in particular, Elizaveta Dmytriyeva. Her story is what makes her death a devastating tragedy within the greater tragedy of those other 25 murdered and more than 100 injured.
This photograph was taken in a lavender field near their home, one week before Elizaveta’s murder.
WARNING: The photographs which follow are very disturbing and may offend most readers, so please proceed with all due caution. We are including these photographs only because we promised to provide uncensored reporting so that our readers clearly understand the brutal atrocities being committed by the Russians in enacting their barbarous genocide on the Ukrainian people. Murder is one of those Russian atrocities, and these photographs capture the entire scene of this crime, including the victim.
The Tragedy within a Tragedy The Murder of Elizaveta Dmytriyeva
This 2019 photograph shows Elizaveta sleeping in her stroller (and her mother Iryna)…
…the same stroller in which she was killed by Russians.
According to two independent sources, the fragmentation blast was so powerful that it ripped Elizaveta’s body in half (I guess this was “fortunate” because it means that Elizaveta didn’t suffer because the blast – and her death – was so instantaneous).
Liza’s mother Iryna was not so fortunate, as the explosion’s fragmentations cut off her left leg, and her massive blood loss put her in a coma for nearly a week.
One day after the Missile attack that killed Elizaveta, her stroller gives mute testimony as to the senseless violence being committed by the Russians…
…and four days after that, I visited the scene of this horrific crime, where I pledged to bring her story to any who will listen, in hopes that those held accountable for this murder will be appropriately punished in the court of public opinion and in the appropriate Court of Law.
Who was Elizaveta Dmytriyeva?
(Photos taken from the social media accounts of her mother Iryna Dmytriyeva)
In most respects, “Liza” was an ordinary four-year-old Ukrainian child: she loved dressing up, she loved the color lavender, she loved flowers, and she certainly loved her doting mother Iryna.
But as a special-needs child, living a regular ordinary life had always been a challenge for Liza and her family. In the words of her loving mother, Iryna:
“When we learned about the pregnancy, we were extremely happy. The perfect picture of the family was immediately drawn in our heads. But fate decided differently,” Iryna recalled in an Instagram post. “We were about to go through pain, disappointment in others, humiliation, and fear.”
Faced with the question as to whether to keep the pregnancy intact and follow-through with her birth, Iryna says she was told by medical experts: “You are young. Why do you need a sick child?”
But nonetheless the couple chose to go ahead, despite knowing their baby would have serious health issues. Both were determined “to show Liza the world, not hide her between four walls.” Just before her first birthday Liza had to have open heart surgery, which thankfully was a success.
In celebrating that first birthday, Iryna simply posted on her Instagram: “I am the mother of an angel.”
Over the next three years, Ukrainians around the country learned of Liza’s story and she became the unofficial poster child for Ukraine’s special needs children.
During that time, a large audience closely followed Iryna’s daily postings, and all of Ukraine celebrated with her whenever Liza accomplished something major, like for instance in late-2019 when Iryna posted: “Liza sat down herself! Without support! Only a little thing for some, but for us it’s incredible, for Liza is a fighter and a hero, a strong little girl whom we love to the point of madness!”
Among Liza’s many admirers was Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelensky, who too was shocked when word got out that Liza had been killed.
“Today we were all horrified by a photo of an overturned baby carriage from Vinnytsya. And then, reading the news, I realized that I know this girl. I will not write all the words I want to, to those who killed her. I will write to you about her.”
“We met while recording a video for Christmas holidays. This little girl managed to paint with dye not only herself, her dress, but also all the other children, me, the cameraman and the director just in half an hour. Look at her, alive, please. I am crying with her loved ones.”
Elizaveta “Liza” Dmytriyeva – May you rest in Peace Little Angel
The word “tragedy” appears repeatedly in nearly all of my Mission reporting, because tragedy is what happens every single day in Ukraine – one tragedy after another. The even-greater tragedy that is related to Liza and Iryna’s own personal tragedy and Vinnytsia’s collective tragedy is the fact that nearly every other attack on Ukrainian civilians involves one of more of these tragic personal stories. That is what inherently happens whenever a mass murder takes place. In the days following the horrific Texas school shooting, we got to know the twenty-plus victims – same with the mass shooting in Buffalo, and now the same here In Ukraine. We meet these wonderful people too late to have enjoyed them in life.
Growing up in a military family I know first-hand that wars always result in the death of innocent people. My father brought that fact of war to my attention whenever we discussed WWII or the Vietnam War – “his” wars. Those artime deaths are mostly called “collateral damage”, because in fact, they are the unintended consequence of trying to eliminate enemy combatants and their military equipment and infrastructure. But even now, with the advent of “smart bombs”, civilians still do lose their lives to military actions.
But what is happening here in Ukraine is not that. Instead, what is happening today in Ukraine is something entirely different, something that if it continues to happen will eventually reach the levels of international outrage that was associated with some of history’s worst civilian causalities.
Making such claims take us into an entirely different conversation, a much more technical and legal conversation that includes “War Crimes” and “Crimes Against Humanity”, so I will leave that for another day. So until then, I urge you to read a very well written article by Louis Jacobson for Politifact, “Russia, Ukraine, and the contested language of genocide”.
But let us not forget that all of these Ukrainian tragedies involve human beings. Real people, with real name and real families – and each has their own story, such a Liza’s story, which make these tragedies within tragedies.
THIS NEEDS TO STOP!