10-year-old Ukrainian girl shot and killed by 'drunk Russian soldiers,' Family says

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“Drunk Russian soldiers” shot and killed a 10-year-old Ukrainian girl while shooting aimlessly at a village outside of Kyiv, according to the girl’s family. 

Anastasia Stoluk, also called Nastya, died on Feb. 28 in a village located about 40 miles from Ukraine’s capital, the girl’s cousin Anya Stoluk told The Times. 

A Ukrainian teenage boy had allegedly fired a gun into the air that day and Russian soldiers reportedly responded by shooting at houses in the village of Shybene.

Anastasia Stoluk, also called Nastya, died on Feb. 28 in a village located about 40 miles from Ukraine’s capital
(Family Handout)

“The soldiers heard [the teenager firing the gun] but since they were so drunk they didn’t know where it was from so they just started shooting everywhere they could see,” Vera Dmitrienko, Stoluk’s mother, told The Times. 

“[The Russian soldiers] looted all the stores, of course they got a lot of alcohol … and got drunk and started shooting.”

Dmitrienko said the soldiers fired into the girl’s house as she was there with her uncle and died “immediately.”

The soldiers allegedly prevented Nastya’s mother from visiting the local cemetery and the young girl was buried in the backyard. 

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    Several buildings in Starobilsk within the Luhansk Oblast region of Ukraine show significant damage because of shelling, according to images shared by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine)

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    People stand next to fragments of military equipment on the street in the aftermath of an apparent Russian strike in Kharkiv in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. Russian troops have launched their anticipated attack on Ukraine. Big explosions were heard before dawn in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa as world leaders decried the start of an Russian invasion that could cause massive casualties and topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government. (AP Photo/Andrew Marienko ) (AP Andrew Marienko)

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    Ukrainian servicemen stand by a destroyed house near the frontline village of Krymske, Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine, Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

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    Smoke rising after shelling on the outskirts of the city is pictured from Kyiv, Ukraine February 27, 2022. REUTERS/Mykhailo Markiv (REUTERS/Mykhailo Markiv)

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    A view of damage due to armed conflict between Russia, Ukraine in Donetsk region under the control of pro-Russian separatists, eastern Ukraine on February 28, 2022. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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    Smoke rising after shelling on the outskirts of the city is pictured from Kyiv, Ukraine February 27, 2022. REUTERS/Mykhailo Markiv ( REUTERS/Mykhailo Markiv)

Nastya’s uncle was also taken to a hospital but the family has not heard updates on his condition, according to Dmitrienko.

More than two million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. The United Nations Children’s Fund estimated last week that roughly 500,000 refugees are children. 

An estimated 38 children have died since the war began and 71 others have been injured, according to  Lyudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, on Monday. 

Marina Yatsko, left, and her boyfriend Fedor mourn over her 18 month-old son Kirill’s lifeless body, killed in shelling, as he lie on a stretcher in a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

One toddler, named Kirill Yatsko, was tragically killed last week in the port city of Mariupol when he was hit in the head with shrapnel. Photos and video showed his mother was inconsolable after doctors were unable to save him, and kept asking “why, why, why” as she stood over his body. 

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