“Today is the Remembrance Day of the children-victims of war in Donbass

130 innocent souls. Children, forgive us…”

*Video at link: https://t.me/dpr_mfa/624

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“Gorlovka was hardest hit in 2014, especially on July 27, when the center was rocked by Ukrainian-fired missiles from morning to evening. After the dust settled and the critically-injured had succumbed to their wounds, at least 30 were dead, including five children, Alexey tells me. The day came to be known as Bloody Sunday.

Alexey and I walked around the city, where he showed me the Bloody Sunday sites. We passed a busy bus stop on a busy street where residents were amassed waiting for their buses. This bus stop was one of the Bloody Sunday sites.

As Alexey told me:

‘The largest number of victims happened near this bus stop. There were mainly babushkas (grandmothers) here, selling flowers and vegetables. They came under Grad strikes and they died.’

Hero Square, not far away, also came under fire: ‘There was mainly youth there, students. Several people died from the blasts, including the ‘Madonna of Gorlovka’, Kristina Zhuk, with her infant daughter Kira.’

A mural just near the main city square depicts Kristina and Kira on Bloody Sunday, rising above the plumes of smoke and the bloodbath.

Not far from the bus stop, a monument commemorates the Gorlovka victims of Ukrainian bombings and sniping from 2014-2017. Near a sculpture of an angel, over 230 names fill the marble slabs, the first dedicated solely to children, 20 of them.”

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Donetsk, at the Alley of Angels

Memorial to six year old Polina Grebennikova, killed on June 21 in Makeevka, by Ukrainian shelling.