Daniel Lukaszewicz

In the photo on the left is an ordinary boy, a schoolboy from Brovary, who was only 13 years old. His name is Yelisey Ryabokon. On the right is the hat the boy was wearing, completely riddled with bullets and shrapnel, as well as his white T-shirt, which he put on over his jacket to show the russians that he was a civilian. However, the bullets from the russian soldiers pierced right through it. This is a terrible reminder of what happened. On March 11, 2022, Yelisey's family tried to escape from a village called Peremoha, which had already been captured by the Russians. As they were driving, the Russian soldiers first waved at them, as if wishing them a safe journey. But then, for no reason at all, they simply opened fire on the car full of people. When the column came under fire, Yelisey's mother and younger son were in one car, while the boy himself was riding in another. The first car exploded after taking a direct hit from a shell; people started jumping out of the cabin and hiding.“I dragged the little one by the hood,” Inna recalled. She hoped that her older son was alive and simply hadn’t managed to get out of the car. It was enough for her to glance at her son to understand: he had died instantly. The mother miraculously managed to survive and pull her younger son out from under the shelling. At first, Yelisey was buried simply in someone’s vegetable garden in that village. Only after some time was the family able to transport his body back home to Brovary to bury him properly. The coffin was never opened. His father Yevhen, who serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was never able to see his son one last time. Yelisey’s mother Inna says: she wants the whole world to know what Russia has done in Ukraine. So that people remember every murdered child, every woman. So that Russia is held accountable for all these crimes. Those who knew Yelisey say he was a very calm, polite, and always smiling boy. In May of that year, he would have turned 14… Source: W.a.f.Ukraine