 'It was very important for me to tell their stories because they haven't yet had a chance to do so.' One of the most devastating accounts comes from Vyacheslav, who had just turned 18 when he became sole guardian to his four siblings after their mother Marina, 37, was killed in front of his eyes, just three feet from where he stood. After days sheltering from relentless shelling, leaving the family with no food, he and Marina risked walking to the shops. But Vyacheslav went home alone, covered in his mother's blood, after she was killed in the explosion from a shell. The war had started just one week earlier. Walking back through the door of his family home in Verkhnotoretske, a village in the Donetskregion of East Ukraine, his appearance said it all. Filmmaker Shahida Tulaganova He recalls his sister Nikusya, 10, asked just one question: 'Was it possible to save her?' Vyacheslav says: 'I didn't tell them anything. They got it themselves. 'They understood everything. I went shopping for food with Mum and came back without her. I was all covered in blood. 'We){kind=link}
In heartbreaking ITV documentary Children of Ukraine â to be aired tomorrow â 10 extraordinary youngsters share their stories with Emmy-nominated war reporter Shahida Tulaganova
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine eight and a half months ago, more than 4 million children have had to leave their home town or city â with 1.8 million of them fleeing abroad as refugees.
And of the 16,400 civilians killed or injured in the course of the Russian onslaught, 1,200 have been children.
Now, in heartbreaking ITV documentary Children of Ukraine â to be aired tomorrow â 10 extraordinary youngsters share their stories with Emmy-nominated war reporter Shahida Tulaganova.
Shahida, 47, grew up in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic, but has lived in London for 26 years and has been covering life in Ukraine since 2014, when Russian hostilities began.