Kyiv: If anything, all wars are cruel, painful, and disruptive. Here in Ukraine the situation does not bear thinking about. The real picture of painful stories on the grounds are yet to emerge. In the past week a few of them trickled down to media, carrying blood and suffering.
The latest of them is the agonising death of 31-year-old Valeriia Maksetska at the hands of Russians. She chose to stay back even as hordes of Ukrainians fled the nation, a lot of them crossing borders to Poland.
A trained medic, she wanted to help the locals and she stayed back just as bombs and missiles rained in on Kyiv. The other day she went out to procure medicines for her ailing mother living in a village outside Kyiv, when she was attacked by Russians. Her mother Irina and the driver of the vehicle also died in the ambush.
As driving towards the country's western borders they pulled over to make way for Russian troops. One of the passing troops opened fire at their car, killing all of them according to Daily Mail.
Valeriia Maksetska was no workaday medic; she had been working with the United States Agency for International Development before she died. USAID administrator Samantha Power in a statement said Valeriia 'Lera' Maksetska was a proud Ukrainian and a compassionate leader on building social cohesion and fighting disinformation.
"She survived the shelling of Donetsk, moved to Kyiv, and started working with USAID - where she became beloved as 'a brave woman with a kind heart. Lera, a trained medic, could've left Kyiv when the invasion began, but stayed to help others," she added.
Valeriia Maksetska, born and raised in Donetsk, had worked on a humanitarian response since Russia's invasion of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Ukraine has been seen unprecedented humanitarian crisis reminiscent only of World War II. Nearly all cities of Ukraine have come under the heavy bombardment of Russians, which threw up incalculable human casualties.