In Vasylkiv, Kyiv region, 27-year-old Hanna Yefimenko was buried — a woman who died on the night of May 18 during a massive Russian drone attack. A direct hit on a residential building destroyed her home. At the moment of the strike, Hanna covered her 4-year-old son Mark with her body. The boy survived but suffered shrapnel wounds to his face — doctors are fighting to save his eyesight. Photojournalist Anton Shuka documented the tragedy of the Yefimenko family, which has become yet another great wound for Ukrainian society.
Massive attack
On the night of May 18, Russian troops launched more than 150 kamikaze drones at the Kyiv region. One of the strikes hit a private house in Vasylkiv, where the Yefimenko family lived. A young mother died protecting her son with her own life.
"Today was a terrible night for Vasylkiv, the worst and last for Anuta, my husband's daughter. Those bastards hit the house. Anuta, born in 1997, died. Her parents are in the hospital, and her little son Markush is fighting for his sight. He was hit by shrapnel — the child is 4 years old. Anuta covered Markush with her body," wrote Tetyana Savchenko, a relative of the deceased, on Facebook.
Anna's husband, Serhiy, is a police officer who performs combat duties, including in the war zone. Now he has lost not only his wife but also his home. His parents were also injured and hospitalized. The family is left homeless.
Photos from the scene of the tragedy
Photojournalist Anton Shutka captured the aftermath of the Russian attack and Anna Yefimenko's funeral. He published a series of photos from Vasylkiv, accompanying them with emotional reflections.
“Evening New York peeks through the shattered wall of a house onto the street in Vasylkiv. It looks as if it has been hiding there for a long time and can finally breathe the damp May air of the Kyiv region. It looks a little surprised from behind the rubble of the wall, as if it had gotten off at the wrong floor in an elevator,” Anton writes.
According to the photographer, this is a mirage of another reality — a fragment of a poster with nighttime New York, which ended up against the backdrop of ruins.
"It's so strange and uncharacteristic here, sparkling with its evening lights. The view of the Brooklyn Bridge resembles a road to paradise. Somewhere up there, perhaps on the top floor of the tallest skyscraper, the president of the United States is making a phone call that will change nothing," he adds.
In this contrast between the image of the metropolis and the ruined Ukrainian house lies the photographer's pain over the devaluation of human life.
"While Trump was talking to Putin on the phone, Russia struck a ‘shahid’ in the courtyard of a house where a local family was hiding. The mother was hugging her son. The debris passed through her body and into the child's body, but he survived. The mother died on the spot, giving a second life to her 4-year-old boy," Anton wrote.
According to him, the reality is so tragic that it seems like a scene from a movie — too painful to be true. Anton was there when the family said goodbye to Hanna. He remembers not only the crying, but also the circumstances of the attack, which he heard directly from the deceased's husband, Serhiy:
“Serhiy was a police officer who served in the Kupiansk area. He came home for just two weeks to spend time with his wife and son. And he ended up in this terrible situation. He came to be with his beloved, and ended up having to bury her.”
Anton Shuka recounts the events of the night of the attack as told by Serhiy:
"The attack was at night. He thought about getting his family out, but everything started exploding around him. The missiles were close by. Everything was burning. Sergei decided to stay at home because running down the street under drones was even more dangerous. They sat in the center of the house, behind two walls. And then he heard the sound of a “shahid” and shouted, “Get down!”
Hanna instantly covered Mark with her body, hugging him. There was an explosion.
“The debris pierced Anna's body. Her mother told Serhiy, ‘She's gone.’ He pulled his son out from under the rubble himself and took him to the hospital at night.”
Shuka recalls that fighter jets were circling in the sky above Vasylkiv at the moment of Anna's burial:
“I haven't heard such crying at a funeral in a long time. Such a great loss and pain befell this family and this city. The crying mixed with the roar of planes in the sky. There was great pain in the eyes of those who were saying goodbye.”
While everyone was saying goodbye to Hanna, doctors at Okhmatdyt were operating on her son. They were trying to save the sight in at least one of his eyes.
Anna Yefimenko's heroic deed is yet another reminder of the price Ukrainian families pay every day because of Russian aggression. At the same time, it is a story of boundless maternal love that is stronger than death.
Anton Shuka is a Ukrainian director, documentary filmmaker, video and photojournalist. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he has been telling international audiences the stories of people affected by the war and Ukrainian culture.
Instagram of Anton Shuka.
Contributors:
Researcher, author: Vira Labych
Image editor: Olga Kovaleva
Literary editor: Yulia Futey
Website manager: Vladislav Kukhar
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