NEWS AND COMMENT-UKRAINE: A young woman whose name is Anastasila Yalanskaya has been shot dead by a Russian death squad while in her car delivering dog food to a local shelter. Russian death squads are roaming around Ukraine targeting civilians in order to sow fear among Ukrainians. There are many cases of this kind of attack one being on a Sky News reporter, Stuart Ramsay who survived but received a bullet wound in the small of his back. He’s been flown back to the UK for treatment. He was lucky to survive. He said that the death squad fired 500-1000 bullets into his car. They are brutal and their behaviour unconscionable.
Anastasila is described as “one of the best human beings I knew. She was committed to help, to help her friends and relatives and whoever needed help”, according to her estranged husband.
She refused to evacuate Ukraine but rather chose to stay and do her bit and help however she could. She was one of three volunteers (the other two were men) who were killed as they made their way to the shelter in Bucha, which is 18 miles outside Kyiv. The press tells me that her car was deliberately targeted at close range by a Russian death squad using heavy weaponry. This sort of killing is taking place more often to force the population into submission.
Bucha is the site of fierce fighting over the past week. The city stands in the path of the Russian army’s sudden advance towards the capital as they travel from the Belarusian border.
The animal shelter that she was driving to had been without food for three days. She made her final Instagram post hours before her death. She is seen sitting in the back seat of a vehicle smiling into the camera next to bags of dog food. Her estranged husband told her to be careful because mistakes can be extremely costly.
Her car was riddled with bullets according to reports and it was quite clear that they were fired at close range. They identified her through her driving licence and distinctive tattoos.
There is a lot of social media support for her. It is terribly sad and poignant. She was a good woman aged 26. Nearly all her life ahead of her. Putin is a war criminal of the worse kind. He must be stopped.
May she rest in peace and travel over the rainbow bridge to the animals she loved. To be with them for eternity.
Andriy Piddubny: My colleague, Anastasiia Yalanskaya died yesterday. Nastya was shot dead by Russian troops while driving in Bucha. It was not an accidental shot, the civilian car was shot at point-blank range, there were 2 other people with it, who also died#StandWithUkraine️ pic.twitter.com/PyTvVOmB8v
— Oleksandra Matviichuk (@avalaina) March 5, 2022
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