Girl, 9, who lost arm when she was shot by Russians ‘hopes it was an accident’

A nine-year-old girl Ukrainian girl has lost her arm after being shot by Russian soldiers who killed her father.

Sasha was fleeing from the fighting in Hostomel – a suburb of Kyiv – along with her father, mother and sister last week, when their car was hit by bullets.

Her father was killed while she along with her mother and sister escaped into the street before taking shelter in a cellar.

The young girl drifted in and out of consciousness for two days before she was carried to a nearby hospital on a make-shift stretcher by volunteers.

She told the Daily Mail: “I don’t know why the Russians shot me. I hope it was an accident and that they didn’t mean to hurt me.

“I was shot in the arm. I ran after my sister. My mum she fell over. I thought it was the end. But she was not dead she was just sheltering from the gunfire. She was hiding.

“Then I lost consciousness. Someone carried me to a cellar. I was given some treatment there. And then some people carried me on a towel to the hospital.”

She was taken to the Central Irpin Hospital, Bucha, where vascular surgeon Dr Vladislav Gorbovec, discovered gangrene had taken hold and he took the decision to amputate her left arm above the elbow, saving Sasha’s life.

Dr Gennadiy Druzenko, of the First Volunteer Mobile Hospital, told the Daily Mail: “She is one of a number of children who have suffered terrible injuries. All of them have lost at least one of their parents.”

The young girl who has been praised by hospital staff for her strength and courage, has asked for a new pink artificial arm that is covered in flowers.

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The nurse who treated Sasha said: “The first thing Sasha said to me was, 'please be honest do I have a left hand or not?'

“I didn't know what to say. I didn't know whether not to say anything, to lie or to tell her the truth. What do you say to a child who is in pain but who knows that she put up with it.

“She asked if she would be healthy and if she can have a new pink artificial arm coloured with flowers.

“She is so strong. She does not cry because she knows only weak people cry. She thanked us for saving her life.”

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