Ukrainian mother writes contact details on her child’s back in case her family is killed

A Ukrainian mother has written her two-year-old daughter’s contact details on her back in case her family were killed by Russian soldiers in the latest heartbreaking image to emerge from the war.

Sasha Makoviy shared the image of her daughter Vira with her birthday and telephone numbers scrawled in pen on her body.

She said on Instagram: ‘I signed Vira in case something happened to us, and someone would pick her up as a survivor.’

The mother explained she wrote the message on the first day of the war as she could hear explosions ringing out around her.

She said the family have now found safety but she wants to show the horrors of the war as Putin’s forces continue to target civilians and children.

Sasha wrote in her Instagram post: ‘In the photo is Vira’s back on the first day of the war. I signed it with my hands trembling very much. But why tell you? 

‘You already know what it’s like to wake up to the deafening and powerful sounds of explosions that can be heard for tens of kilometres. I was shaking for the first hours like you.

‘Then an even crazier thought flashed through my mind: ‘Why didn’t I tattoo her with this information?” 

Sasha shared a second image of a hand-written contact card placed in Vira’s jacket, showing her name, the name of her parents and their phone numbers, in case they became separated.

Others shared similar stories, with one person writing: ‘On the first day of the war I did the same for my three-year-old son. 

‘And although we are now with him in England, the paper is always with him.’ 

Others said they stitched contact information into their children’s clothes and made bracelets for them with emergency details.  

It comes as the evidence of barbaric Russian war crimes continues to mount, with satellite images showing piles of civilian bodies slaughtered in Bucha and horrific stories of rape and abuse.

A grandmother living in the town of Irpin, 13 miles north of Kyiv, said she saw several soldiers rape a mother and her 15-year-old daughter.

Branding the Russian soldiers ‘animals’, Anna Schevchenko, 63, accused the Kremlin of war crimes and told MailOnline: ‘You would not believe what we have lived through there.

‘The Russians were animals. They shot people trying to escape and left them in the street.

‘Drunk Russians kicked down the doors of cellars and pulled women out and raped them. One girl aged just 15 was raped with her mother by several soldiers.

‘They are animals. I hate them. One of my neighbours was shot in the back of the head by the Russians as he had shot a stray dog to eat as we were so hungry.

‘But they looked at his hands and thought he had been shooting at them so they killed him despite him being an old man.’

Images taken in the commuter city on the outskirts of Kyiv on March 19 show dark objects strewn along a road – which match the exact positions where the rotting corpses of civilians were found by Ukrainian soldiers who recaptured the area from Russian forces at the weekend.

Russian forces were in control of the city at the time, strongly suggesting that it was Putin‘s men – and not Kyiv’s – who carried out the killings, despite Kremlin claims the photos were stages.

Kyiv now says at least 410 civilians were massacred in and around Bucha by the Russians while others were tortured and raped in what President Volodymyr Zelensky has described as ‘genocide’. 

Officials have warned that the slaughter of hundreds of civilians could just be the ‘tip of the iceberg’. 

A growing number of world leaders have voiced outrage and called for tougher sanctions against Moscow.

But Ukrainian officials have warned that other areas nearby may have seen worse atrocities and that Bucha could be just the beginning.

Ukrainian prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktova told Ukrainian TV that a ‘similar humanitarian situation’ to Bucha exists in other parts of the country where Russian forces recently left, such as the areas around the northern cities of Sumy and Chernihiv. 

She also said the situation in Borodyanka, which is further from Kyiv and was also held by Russian forces until recently, may be even worse.

Venediktova didn’t specify what exactly had happened in Borodyanka but said ‘the worst situation in terms of the victims’ is there.

It comes as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed Romania’s parliament Monday evening in a video call in which the leader said had Ukraine not defended itself, Russia would have carried out atrocities like that of Bucha ‘all over Ukraine.’

Zelenskyy, who was visibly emotional when he visited the town of Bucha on Monday to see the alleged crimes of Russia’s forces against Ukrainian civilians, shared grim video footage during his address that showed areas strewn with dead bodies. 

‘The military tortured people and we have every reason to believe that there are many more people killed,’ Zelenskyy said. ‘Much more than we know now.’

The Ukrainian leader also called for tougher sanctions, saying ‘Russia must be deprived of all resources, primarily economic’ and said that the fate of the region will be decided by the outcome of the war in Ukraine.

Before the Ukrainian leader’s address, the president of Romania’s Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, said the last few days ‘have shown us horrible images that have overwhelmed and revolted us all.’

‘I support a speedy investigation by the International Criminal Court,’ Ciolacu said.