Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty journalist and war reporter Maryan Kushnir rescued a child aged 4 during the Russian strike in the Bucha district of Kyiv oblast, TSN special correspondent Yulia Kiriyenko-Merinova reported in a Facebook post.
Yulia Kiriyenko-Merinova said that the strike had resulted in a fire breaking out in a high-rise building. The child’s mother was killed. The child has been picked up by the father and is now safe.
Yulia Kirienko-Merinova said that it was not the first time that Maryan Kushnir had rescued a civilian. Earlier, he had hepled a family with a 12-year-old daughter escape from a frontline village deemed too dangerous for evacuation vehicles to travel to.
Maryan Kushnir said on the national telethon United News that he had noticed an apartment door ajar in the chaos that reigned at the scene of the fire.
I opened it, saw the girl wrapped up in a blanket, on the bed, crying and shouting, “Mom!” And the mother was upstairs, that was where the fire was. I picked the girl up in my arms, carried her outside, took her away from there,” said Maryan Kushnir.
(Updated) Maryan Kushnir later wrote on Facebook that he was “no hero, I just happened to be there and did what I had to do.”
“It is the soldiers, the rescuers, the doctors and many others who save us Ukrainians from being murdered by Russia every day who are the heroes. But the girl everyone is talking about needs support now, as does her whole family,” the war reporter said.
He shared the donation details in a comment to his post, so that those willing can help the girl’s family.
In May 2024, Radio Liberty journalist Maryan Kushnir helped a local woman leave Vovchansk (Kharkiv oblast).
