Vova speaks out of the side of his mouth, agonisingly, the entire right side of his face swollen from the impact of the rifle round

ByHenry Bodkin, SENIOR REPORTER18 March 2022 •

Thirteen-old Vova’s voice wavers as he describes the moment bullets struck his family car as they tried to flee Kyiv, immediately killing his father and cousin.

“I remember there was shooting over the car, at windows, at people, everywhere,” he said.

“I put my backpack over my head to protect myself. I got hit and couldn’t open the door because the car was locked.

“Then the rescuers arrived and took me out of the car, pulling at my legs, and took me to the hospital.”

He speaks out of the side of his mouth, agonisingly, the entire right side of his face swollen from the impact of the rifle round.

Pictures emerged yesterday of a huge gaping wound nearly the length of his face where the bullet struck during the February 26 attack.

Miraculously, the computer-mad teenager survived, following several complex operations at Okhmatdit children’s hospital.

Subsequent pictures show the heavily bandaged 13-year-old clutching two teddy bears while lying in bed.

The most recent shows him clenching his fists defiance.

As well as his own wounds and the death of his father and cousin, Vova’s aunt was hit in the hands and the legs, while his mother’s cousin suffered a head injury.

Anastasiya Magerramova, a spokesman for the hospital, said Vova and his family were “trying to leave Kyiv when Russian soldiers shot their car”.

“Vova has a gunshot wound to the right half of his face, a fragmentation open fracture of the lower jaw, and a fragmentary fracture of the right cheekbone-orbital complex caused by the blast.

“Ohmatdyt’s doctors have performed a number of complex operations on the teenager. Vova needs a long rehabilitation to fully recover.”

Vova is one of several children with horrific injuries whose details have been published by Okhmatdit hospital in an effort to show the world the consequences of Vladimir Putin’s war.

Another patient of the Okhmatdit, who received terrible injuries during the war is seven-year-old Varia from Irpen, on the outskirts of the capital.

She was trying to leave their hometown with her family after “constant” shelling by the Russian army.

The hospital said that the family’s car was attacked with mortas, causing Varia and her mother to suffer significant shrapnel wounds, forcing doctors at Okhmatdit to fight for their lives.

Meanwhile on the 28 Feb a young girl called Milana saw her mother die in front of her eyes when a Russian missile hit their house near Hostomel.

Shrapnel damaged the girl’s lower limbs in the blast, and her aunt’s foot was torn off.

Specialists at Okhmatdit performed several operations on Milana.

Most recently, the hospital published photographs of a four-year-old boy with a wide and deep wound to his lower back.

It said the child had been returning home to his house in Kyiv with his father when a Russian missile struck near the house.

Somehow, his spinal cord was not hit.

The hospital said: “Currently, the patient’s life is not in danger, but his injury is very serious.

“The boy will go through the long healing process under the supervision of Ohmatdyt’s doctors.”