The Ukrainian bombing of its eastern town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region has taken away a husband and 11-year-old daughter of Anna Tuv. Her left arm was also badly wounded and had to be amputated.
The Ukrainian authorities turned their backs on Anna and refused to help in her hour of need. However, assistance unexpectedly came from Italy. The young mother told her story to Sputnik Italia, when she arrived in Italy in order to get a bionic myoelectric prosthesis, and here is her story.
"I am very happy to be in Italy. It was my biggest dream which became a reality after a year of anguish," she told Sputnik.
Anna explained to Sputnik that she could not leave Ukraine due to complications with her documents. She could not get the documents for repatriation as she was persecuted on political motives. She was forced to apply to the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights to get the required travel documents. She made the case that the Ukrainian government, acting illegally and using prohibited armaments, killed her family and was trying to kill her. In addition to a dead daughter, her other two kids were wounded in government shelling.
She received assistance from Ennio Bordato, the President of the Italy-based Association "Help to Save Children" (Aiutateci a salvare i bambini), who repeatedly applied to numerous international organizations with no result, until the Russian embassy in Rome arranged for new documents to be issued, granting Anna refugee status.
No official organization in Ukraine even gave her a phone call or expressed their condolences. The Ukrainian government has done nothing to help her with the prosthesis.
All the money for the prosthesis came from Italian donors, allowing Anna to travel to the Center of prosthetic care in the Italian town of Budrio (Centro Protesi Vigorso di Budrio, INAIL).
"I have come to Italy with my mother and my two other small kids," Anna told Sputnik.
"We are very happy. My life is going to get better soon and I will be able to hug my kids with both arms. I will be able to work once again and provide for my family," she said.
The young woman explained that she is now the only supporter of her family, hence it is so important for her to get a bionic myoelectric prosthesis. She heartily thanked all the people who donated money for her stay in Italy, hospital treatment and prosthetic care.
However Anna bitterly noted that she won't be able to ever make up for the loss of her husband and daughter. It is absolutely impossible to find any words to describe the pain she will always feel. However it has not crushed her spirit, and she is doing her best to help those who have experienced similar tragedies.
Together they will be able to overcome the horrors of war and search for peace. No resident of Donbass wants war, she said, all are dreaming of peace.
It is painful to understand that nobody from the Ukrainian side wants peace, she added. The residents of Donbass want a ceasefire, however the Ukrainians want to "eliminate them all."
The woman recalled that she found no support in the social media after the loss of her husband, daughter, home and arm, only repeated insults aimed at her and her dead daughter.
Anna urged people to stop being zombies and puppets in the hands of the Ukrainian authorities who have sold themselves and betrayed their people by ordering the destruction of their own residents, and start to understand that they are being used.
"We used to live in peace and harmony, not kill each other," she said, recalling a more peaceful time.
Nevertheless, the young woman still follows the latest news from Horlivka. The people there are living in a state of panic around the clock. They say that there is shooting there night and day. They are afraid to live and work. Many are hiding in basements and cellars. Their existence has become a living hell.
Learning that she is in Italy, people ask her to tell the Europeans what is going on in Donbass. The houses there are shelled daily by artillery, there are Ukrainian tanks in Avdiivka. Miners are trapped underground, unable to get back to the surface.
Anna personally knows 34 people, including 11 children under the age of 6, who constantly live underground in the city of Marinka. They have left with their pets, cats and dogs, because it is impossible to live under the crossfire, she finally stated.
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