Warning: This article contains descriptions of graphic scenes.
For a moment, Oksana Latanska could not believe her eyes when she looked down at a cold, little body, gray from dust and ashes.
It hardly resembled the little boy that she knew so well and whom she saw almost every weekend at the rallies calling for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) from Russian captivity.
Only his golden-blonde curls helped her recognize the body, bringing the worst nightmare into reality.
It was Maksym Shaulskyi, her friend's son, who was only 12 years old when a Russian missile strike on his hometown of Kryvyi Rih took his life on Sept. 21.
With a population of around 660,000, Kryvyi Rih is the second most populous city in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Due to its proximity to the embattled Donetsk Oblast, the city has suffered multiple deadly attacks by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale war.
"I saw what was left from our sunshine. It was excruciating," Latanska told the Kyiv Independent.
The strike also killed Maksym’s 75-year-old grandmother, Valentyna Shaulska, and two more civilians, according to the local authorities.
According to Latanska, the boy's biggest dream was to see his older brother Mykyta, one of the defenders of now-occupied Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast, who has been in Russian captivity since 2022.
But that dream was shattered by a Russian missile hitting a residential neighborhood of a peaceful city.
"It's a horrible tragedy," Latanska says. "Maksym was such a wonderful boy… Our little sunshine."
Maksym is one of the 578 Ukrainian children killed by the Russian war since Feb. 24, 2022, according to the national database.
Maksym is one of the 578 Ukrainian children killed by the Russian war since Feb. 24, 2022, according to the national database. The U.N. estimates that at least 11,743 civilians have been killed and 24,614 injured since the start of the full-scale invasion. However, the actual number of civilian casualties is likely much higher as it doesn’t account for fatalities in the Russian-occupied territories that are inaccessible to international organizations.
United by grief
Latanska, who heads the Steel Guard of Kryvyi Rih non-profit that advocates for the release of Ukrainian POWs, says it was the "common grief" that united her and Shaulskyi's family shortly after Russia’s all-out war began.
Latanska's son, Ukrainian soldier Vitalii, served in the same National Guard unit with Mykyta Shaulskyi. They both defended Mariupol in the spring of 2022 during the brutal Russian siege of the city, both ending up in Russian captivity at the age of 22.
Former service member herself, Latanska says that Maksym and Mykyta’s mother, Nataliia Shaulska, joined the Armed Forces when one of her sons was already in captivity. The family also has another adult son who lives in Dnipro, according to Latanska.
Their entire family regularly took part in the local weekend rallies, part of a national movement aimed at keeping the release of the prisoners on everyone's agenda.
Little Maksym rarely skipped them, Latanska says. He and Mykyta were very close, she says, adding that it was the boy's biggest dream to see and hug his big brother again.
Photos of Maksym holding Mykyta's portrait and calling for his release during one of the rallies in Kryvyi Rih went viral following his death.
While Latanska's son Vitalii was released from captivity in June, Mykyta is still a prisoner of Russia. He is now 25.
Latanska says they hope Mykyta will be released soon, but they worry about how he will receive the devastating news that Russia killed his brother and grandmother while he was in captivity.
'No punishment is enough'
The mother of Mykyta and Maksym, Nataliia Shaulska, returned to civilian life nearly three weeks before her youngest son was killed. She was outside Kryvyi Rih when the missile struck their neighborhood, almost completely destroying their house.
"Otherwise, the entire family would have been gone," Latanska says.
She rushed to the site the moment she learned about the tragedy: "When I was looking at his (Maksym's) body, I thought that the monster who launched the missile might also have children, maybe even of Maksym's age."
"I thought about how he landed his plane at a Russian airfield, walked into a bakery, and bought some pastry for his family. He walked home and kissed his wife and his sleeping 12-year-old son. And for me, the only fitting punishment is from God, who will take away his family in the most painful way possible, so he feels it himself."
"But even that would not be enough because it would not bring our boy back," she went on.
"No punishment for Russia would be enough."
Note from the author:
Hi! Daria Shulzhenko here. I wrote this piece for you. Since the first day of Russia's all-out war, I have been working almost non-stop to tell the stories of those affected by Russia’s brutal aggression. By telling all those painful stories, we are helping to keep the world informed about the reality of Russia’s war against Ukraine. By becoming the Kyiv Independent's member, you can help us continue telling the world the truth about this war.
Daria Shulzhenko
