Ukraine's child victims to address UN in attempt to win American hearts

A small group of Ukrainian child victims of war will address a private session of the UN Security Council today, part of an effort by Kyiv to remind Americans of the human costs of a conflict increasingly affected by US domestic politics.

- Dan Sabbagh

Those due to address the UN body, include Kira, 14, and Ilya, 11, from the besieged city of Mariupol.

"I was standing at a bus stop at 6am, waiting to go to school, when I started hearing a few explosions. It was then I realised the war had started," Kira told the Guardian ahead of her trip to New York, which will be followed by a visit to Washington.

Kira was forced to spend about a month sheltering, hiding in houses, basements and at one point a church as Mariupol was pounded.

At first she fled to her grandfather's, then with her father, Yevhen Obedinskyi, to "a noisy district", said Kira where "over about a week and a half, the explosions were heard more and more". Eventually it reached the point where they felt they had to escape-only for disaster to strike.

So intense was the shelling that Yevhen was killed and Kira and the family she was with had to leave his body behind, fleeing to hide in a cellar.

After a few desperate weeks, the girl, members of her father's girlfriend's family and some other families finally attempted to flee Mariupol-but they were intercepted and captured by pro-Russian separatists.