A 26-year-old Ukrainian recruiter was shot dead in her car as she was on her way back from delivering food to a dog shelter near Kyiv.
Anastasiia Yalanskaya was one of three volunteers who made the perilous journey to the shelter in Bucha – 18 miles from Ukraine’s capital.
It is also close to the town of Irpin, where people are being evacuated to escape heavy shelling by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Anastasiia’s car was deliberately targeted with ‘heavy weaponry’ by Russian troops on Thursday, her family claimed.
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It is not known for sure what the soldiers’ intentions were, but the volunteer’s loved ones believe they were taking aim at civilians.
The Kremlin claims it is only attacking military targets, but several stories of whole families being wiped out and countless photos of destroyed residential blocks paint a very different picture.
Anastasiia’s last Instagram story on March 3 showed her sitting in the back of the vehicle with bags of dog food.
The animals had been left for three days without anything to eat as Bucha was under heavy bombardment by Russian forces.
‘I asked her to be extra cautious,’ Anastasiia’s estranged husband Yevhen Yalanskyi said.
‘A mistake costs extremely much, but she was helping everyone around. I asked her to think of evacuation but she did not listen.’
Anastasiia’s car was found riddled with bullets, not far from her home, the New York Post reports.
Volunteers had just delivered the dog food and Anastasiia had almost made it back right before she was killed.
Her body is still in a morgue in Bucha, but because of fighting in the area no one can get there, a friend told Global News.
‘Not being able to help her last journey is very painful for me,’ Yevhen said from Sri Lanka.
‘She was one of the best human beings I knew. She was committed to help, to help her friends and relatives and whoever needed help.
‘She loved animals. We had a dog and a cat. She was the best partner I ever had.’
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