‘My goddaughter was at Kyiv hospital for chemo when Russia’s rockets hit’
KYIV – Before Vladimir Putin’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, 10-year-old Dasha Nasakina lived a peaceful life with her parents in Mariupol.
Within days of the invasion, she was forced to flee her city as Russia brought destruction and advanced on her home.
Dasha moved to Kyiv with her mother Valentina and godmother Olena Barkova. While they endured the war around them, they were, at least, healthy and with loved ones.
Then in January this year, Dasha was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukaemia. She has spent much of the time since in Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, which on Monday was hit by Russian missiles during a major attack on cities across Ukraine, which killed at least 41 people and wounded more than 150.
When Valentina first heard the news of her daughter’s devastating illness, she suffered what was diagnosed as a hypertensive crisis and Olena was given legal responsibility for Dasha.
On Monday morning, Dasha was beginning her fourth block of high-dose chemotherapy with Olena, who escaped Mariupol with her two young children, by her side. Then the hypersonic missiles struck.
“It was around ten in the morning,” Olena says. “We were just in the ward at the moment the rockets hit, and the ceiling started to collapse.
“All I managed to do was cover Dasha with myself. She was sleeping at that moment when the ceiling began to fall on her and the bed began to shake.
“After the hell of Mariupol, I already had an automatic reaction that I should cover my children with myself. It doesn’t matter what happens to me.
“I lost relatives in Mariupol, so life is above all else for me, especially the children.”
They survived, but there was no escape.
As rescue workers dug through the rubble for survivors after one of the worst air attacks of the war, Dasha’s radiotherapy and that of other critically ill children was administered outside amid the destruction.
No staff left the scene. They did what they could to keep Dasha and hundreds of other children alive.
“I always believed that the Okhmatdyt hospital was the safest place in Kyiv, because it is a hospital, and also with children. It is sacred. Because they are children,” Olena adds. “But it turns out that nothing is sacred for our neighbour Russia.
“After the strike, the medical staff started running around the hospital. They were all covered in shrapnel, and many were wounded. Fire and smoke was everywhere. Everything was falling and flying around.
“Dasha could not take her medicine on time, and this is the most important thing during the course of chemotherapy.
“By this time we had been sent to the first floor, which is underground. Despite their injuries, medical staff continued to save the children and after the sirens stopped we were taken outside into the street.
“The doctors and nurses washed all the catheters and attached them to the children again. The staff were just incredible. They not only grabbed children, they carried all the drugs and equipment they could.”
Olena says she does not know how Dasha will respond to the attack, explaining that she was, like many of the other children, “shaking and feverish” in the hours after the missiles struck.
“One of the factors of oncology is stress, and today’s attack could mean Dasha has a relapse,” she said.
“For me, the most important thing now is that the children are alive. I have such terrible déjà vu after Mariupol that it is difficult to explain today’s events.”
On Tuesday, Ukraine announced a day of mourning. Officials have prohibited entertainment events and lowered flags on public buildings.
Kyiv’s military authorities said 27 people had died in the capital, including three children, and 82 were wounded after 38 ballistic and hypersonic missiles were fired on the Ukrainian capital.
As of Monday evening, officials in Kyiv said that two adults were killed in the attack on Okhmatdyt Hospital. Rescuers worked through the night and more casualties may be found amid the rubble.
The daylight attacks included Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, one of the most advanced Russian weapons that travel at ten times the speed of sound, making them incredibly hard to intercept.
These weapons were targeted at Ukraine’s equivalent of Great Ormond Street in London – the country’s largest children’s hospital that has, as President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “been saving and restoring the health of thousands of children”.
When the power was lost, Olena could not contact Dasha’s mother or father for hours and knew they would have seen the attack on television.
“It was very scary,” says Olena. “You cannot tell your relatives about your condition and you do not know what is happening on the street.
“When there was an internet connection on the street, I wrote to Dasha’s mother to tell her we were alive.
“I made a promise to God and her parents to protect Dasha, and now I am trying to do it.
“I really want her to recover, because I have seen how this child suffers from the disease. I don’t understand how it is possible to bring this hell on these children.
“I want to call on the whole civilised world to help us stop this hell. I really believe that they will support us.
“That they will help us stop the evil of Russia.”
