A boy watched Russians kill his parents. Will it be considered a war crime?
After Russian soldiers killed his parents in front of him soon after the invasion began, 10-year-old Andriy Bliznyuk hasn’t been able to sleep alone. “He is a
SOFIIVKA, Ukraine — After Russian soldiers killed his parents in front of him soon after the invasion began, 10-year-old Andriy Bliznyuk hasn’t been able to sleep alone.
“He is a traumatized child,” his maternal grandfather, Oleksandr Chernoval, said.
On March 1, Andriy, his mother, Oksana, his father, Mykhailo Bliznyuk, and uncle Serhiy Salivon were trying to escape the advance of the invading troops near the capital, Kyiv, when the boy says they encountered a column of Russian tanks.
The vehicle belonging to the Bliznyuk family, which was crushed by a Russian tank, killing both parents. According to Andriy, one of the tanks rumbled over and crushed their beige Audi with all of them inside. In a bizarre act of mercy, Russian soldiers plucked him from the car after he waved his hand from the wrecked vehicle, he says. Then, he says, they opened machine-gun fire on the car.
Andriy says he remembers lying on the side of the road as the car burst into flames. His mother, father and uncle were dead. A stranger found him and took him to a hospital, he says.
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