UN secretary-general will travel to Ukraine to meet with President Zelensky on Thursday

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine and started closing in on its capital, Kyiv, Andrii Dereko begged his 22-year-old stepdaughter Karina Yershova to depart the suburb the place she lived.

However Yershova insisted she wished to stay in Bucha, telling him: “Do not speak nonsense, all the pieces will likely be wonderful — there will likely be no battle,” he mentioned.

Together with her tattoos and lengthy brown hair, Yershova stood out in a crowd, her stepfather mentioned, including that regardless of residing with rheumatoid arthritis, she had a fiercely impartial spirit: “She herself determined methods to dwell.”

Yershova labored at a sushi restaurant in Bucha, and hoped to earn her college diploma sooner or later, Dereko mentioned: “She wished to develop herself.”

As Russian troopers surrounded Bucha in early March, Yershova hid in an house with two different mates. On one of many final events Dereko and his spouse, Olena, heard from Yershova, she advised them she had left the house to get meals from a close-by grocery store.

“We didn’t assume that Russians would attain such a degree that they might shoot civilians,” he mentioned. “All of us hoped that a minimum of they might not contact girls and youngsters — however the reverse occurred.”

When weeks glided by with no phrase from Yershova, the household turned determined for information. Her mom left a message on Fb begging anybody who knew what had occurred to her to get in contact.

She was advised by mates that photos of a lifeless girl with comparable tattoos to Yershova’s — which included a rose on her forearm — had been posted on a Telegram group arrange by a detective in Bucha who was making an attempt to establish lots of of our bodies discovered within the city after Russian troops withdrew from the realm two weeks in the past.

Dereko says the photographs, seen by CNN, present his stepdaughter’s mutilated physique. Police advised the household she had been killed by Russian troopers.

It regarded like she was tortured or put up a combat, he mentioned. “They mutilated her. They shot her within the leg, after which gave her a tourniquet to cease her bleeding. After which they shot her within the temple.”

Dereko additionally believes Yershova was sexually abused by Russian troops. “The [police] investigator hinted” that she had been raped, he mentioned.

CNN has not been capable of independently confirm this declare. Officers who oversaw the case declined to remark to CNN as a result of ongoing investigation. CNN has reached out to Kyiv prosecutors for remark.

The Dereko household’s agonizing look ahead to solutions displays the rising nervousness amid experiences of wartime rape within the nation.

Ukrainian officers say Russian forces have been sexually abusing girls, youngsters and males for the reason that invasion started, utilizing rape and different sexual offenses as weapons of battle.

Human rights teams and Ukrainian psychologists who CNN spoke to say they’ve been working across the clock to take care of a rising variety of sexual abuse circumstances allegedly involving Russian troopers.

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