Ukraine war: ‘They didn’t even let me say goodbye – it’s been almost a year since I last saw my mum, since I heard her voice’
Apart from the odd roadblock and uniformed men carrying weapons and checking your car, in certain parts of Ukraine, it’s very easy to forget there’s a war going on.
In a completely non-descript town in central Ukraine, parents with their children in tow walked to restaurants and cafes, played in playgrounds, or waited for older siblings to finish big school and re-join the family.
It all seems normal. Nobody looks particularly stressed.
Spring is coming, and in eastern Europe there is always a tangible sense of joy as the months of snow and ice give way to the months of sun and flowers, green grass, blue skies, and bright yellow wheatfields.
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But there is a darkness now that never lifts.
The dark of war is equally tangible, and even amid the laughter of children drinking sodas and eating pizza, there is a sadness that pervades everything.
In this apparent normality, there are little ones who have witnessed things they should never have witnessed and suffered more than anyone should suffer.
And despite their tough game faces, they’re breaking inside.
I met Oleksandr “Sasha” Radchuk sitting on a park bench, and I wished I could offer him some comfort.
Sasha
Russian soldiers tore the 12-year-old from his mother a year ago in Mariupol and sent him to Russian-occupied territory in Donetsk.
He hasn’t seen her since.
Now he just has his grandmother Lyudmila Syrik, who travelled thousands of miles to find him and bring him home.
Grandma and Sasha
It all began for this little boy when he was injured in the eye by shrapnel from a rocket as he and his mother left their Mariupol basement to cook food outside.
“After 24 February, we were hiding in a basement, there was no electricity and no water, and we didn’t have enough food, we couldn’t buy anything because we had less and less money,” Sasha told me.
The family managed to find safety at a nearby factory housing Ukrainian soldiers and he received first aid for his injured eye.
The Ukrainian military looked after them until they had to surrender when Mariupol fell to the Russians last year.
Sasha and his 32-year-old mother Snizhana Kozlova were taken by Russian soldiers to a so-called filtration camp, where they were separated.
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Ukraine’s Missing Children
“They questioned my mum, and then they said that child services from Novoazovsk would come and will take me away from my mum, and they also told me that my mum doesn’t need me and that she will never get me back,” Sasha explained to me.
“We were in a camp, and they were doing the filtration process, and then they took my mom into another tent, and then they took me away.”
I asked him what his mother said when they were trying to take him away.
“They had already taken me away from her, and didn’t even let me say goodbye, and it’s been almost a year since I last saw my mum, since I heard her voice.”
Sasha and grandma
In a café, Sasha showed me pictures of his mum on his phone.
I watched as his face lit up as he scrolled through photos and played videos of the two of them together, smiling and having fun.
To this day Sasha doesn’t know what has happened to his mother.
He was saved by his grandmother after doctors in Donetsk posted pictures of him on social media.
Sasha says he thinks the doctors were trying to help him find his relatives.
Outraged, his grandmother Lyudmila travelled through Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and then Russia to get him back.
Although she struggled to get her travel documents in order and had a little trouble at checkpoints along the way, she ultimately made it – and found him.
“I hugged him and told him, my child, now you will be with me, and I told him we will try to find your mum, because he had asked me earlier, ‘granny, are you coming to get me?’ And I said yes, I am coming to get you, I need to get to you somehow, he told me there was shooting where he was, and I told him, before they take you away from there, I need to get you.”
Like Sasha, Lyudmila doesn’t know what has happened to her daughter. But she chooses to hope for her grandson’s sake.
Grandma, Sasha and Stuart Ramsay
“Maybe she’s in a camp,” she offered up quietly.
Sasha hopes that by telling his story and telling the world about his mum, somehow, they will be reunited.
This is Sasha’s story, there are thousands just like his.
Bob Geldof has accused the Israeli authorities of “lying” about starvation in Gaza – after Israel’s government spokesperson claimed there was “no famine caused by Israel”.
Earlier this week, David Mencer claimed that Hamas “starves its own people” while on The News Hour with Mark Austin, denying that Israel was responsible for mass hunger in Gaza.
Appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Geldof said the claims are false.
Follow latest: Gaza aid airdrops a ‘smokescreen’ and ‘distraction’, says UN agency chief
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Israel challenged on starvation in Gaza
Mr Phillips asked the Live Aid organiser: “The Israeli view is that there is no famine caused by Israel, there’s a manmade shortage, but it’s been engineered by Hamas.
“I guess the Israelis would say we don’t see much criticism from your side of Hamas.”
In response, Geldof said “that’s a false equivalence” and “the Israeli authorities are lying”.
The singer then added: “They’re lying. [Benjamin] Netanyahu lies, is a liar. The IDF are lying. They’re dangling food in front of starving, panicked, exhausted mothers.
“And while they arrive to accept the tiny amount of food that this sort of set up pantomime outfit, the Gaza Humanitarian Front, I would call it, as they dangle it, then they’re shot wantonly.
“This month, up to now, a thousand children or a thousand people have died of starvation. I’m really not interested in what either of these sides are saying.”
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Gaza: ‘This is man-made starvation’
In the interview with Mark Austin on 23 July, Mr Mencer added: “This suffering exists because Hamas made it so. Here are the facts. Aid is flowing, through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Millions of meals are being delivered directly to civilians.” He also claimed that since May more than 4,400 aid trucks had entered Gaza carrying supplies.
It comes after MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished.
The charity said Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon” has reached unprecedented levels, and said that at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks.
MSF then called the lack of food and water on the ground as “unconscionable”.
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Aid waiting to be distributed in Gaza
In a statement to Sky News, an Israeli security official said that “despite the false claims that are being spread, the State of Israel does not limit the number of humanitarian aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip”.
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It then blamed other groups for issues delivering aid. They said: “Over the past month, we have witnessed a significant decline in the collection of aid from the crossings into the Gaza Strip by international aid organisations.
“The delays in collection by the UN and international organisations harm the situation and the food security of Gaza’s residents.”
The IDF also told Sky News: “The IDF allows the American civilian organisation (GHF) to distribute aid to Gaza residents independently, and operates in proximity to the new distribution zones to enable the distribution alongside the continuation of IDF operational activities in the Gaza Strip.
“Following incidents in which harm to civilians who arrived at distribution facilities was reported, thorough examinations were conducted in the Southern Command and instructions were issued to forces in the field following lessons learned.
“The aforementioned incidents are under review by the competent authorities in the IDF.”
You can watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips at 8.30am tomorrow.
World
25% of young children and pregnant women malnourished in Gaza, charity says, as PM vows to fly critical medical cases to UK
A charity has warned 25% of young children and pregnant women in Gaza are now malnourished, with Sir Keir Starmer vowing to evacuate children who need “critical medical assistance” to the UK.
MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said Israel’s “deliberate use of starvation as a weapon” has reached unprecedented levels – with patients and healthcare workers both fighting to survive.
It claimed that, at one of its clinics in Gaza City, rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have trebled over the past two weeks – and described the lack of food and water on the ground as “unconscionable”.
Pic: Reuters
The charity also criticised the high number of fatalities seen at aid distribution sites, with one British surgeon accusing IDF soldiers of shooting civilians “almost like a game of target practice”.
MSF’s deputy medical coordinator in Gaza, Dr Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, said: “Those who go to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s food distributions know that they have the same chance of receiving a sack of flour as they do of leaving with a bullet in their head.”
The UN also estimates that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people seeking food – the majority near the militarised distribution sites of the US-backed aid distribution scheme run by the GHF.
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‘Many more deaths unless Israelis allow food in’
In a statement on Friday, the IDF had said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians”, and reports of incidents at aid distribution sites were “under examination”.
The GHF has also previously disputed that these deaths were connected with its organisation’s operations, with director Johnnie Moore telling Sky News: “We just want to feed Gazans. That’s the only thing that we want to do.”
Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and has accused the UN of failing to distribute it, in what the foreign ministry has labelled as “a deliberate ploy” to defame the country.
‘Humanitarian catastrophe must end’
In a video message posted on X late last night, Sir Keir Starmer condemned the scenes in Gaza as “appalling” and “unrelenting” – and said “the images of starvation and desperation are utterly horrifying”.
The prime minister added: “The denial of aid to children and babies is completely unjustifiable, just as the continued captivity of hostages is completely unjustifiable.
“Hundreds of civilians have been killed while seeking aid – children, killed, whilst collecting water. It is a humanitarian catastrophe, and it must end.”
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Israeli military show aid waiting inside Gaza
Sir Keir confirmed that the British government is now “accelerating efforts” to evacuate children from Gaza who need critical medical assistance, so they can be brought to the UK for specialist treatment.
Israel has now said that foreign countries will be able to airdrop aid into Gaza. While the PM says the UK will now “do everything we can” to get supplies in via this route, he said this decision has come “far too late”.
Read more:
WHO: Gaza faces ‘manmade’ starvation
UN: People in Gaza ‘walking corpses’
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Last year, the RAF dropped aid into Gaza, but humanitarian organisations warned it wasn’t enough and was potentially dangerous. In March 2024, five people were killed when an aid parachute failed and supplies fell on them.
For now, Sir Keir has rejected calls to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and recognise a Palestinian state – despite more than 220 MPs signing a cross-party letter to demand he takes this step.
The prime minister is instead demanding a ceasefire and “lasting peace” – and says he will only consider an independent state as part of a negotiated peace deal.
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