Sitting on a chair on the street, facing a wall. Distraught, almost helpless, looking down.
On the ground, a metal blanket hides the lifeless body of a nine-year-old girl, her niece .
The heartbreaking image of the elderly man is making the rounds on the web and has become one of the symbols of the horror of war. He is the grandfather of the girl who died together with her mother in the Russian attack that hit Kiev in the night between 31 May and 1 June .
«A difficult photo to look at», Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on twitter, who relaunched and commented on the shot: «But it is necessary. It is again. And again, and again."
According to some eyewitness accounts, the man remained crouched over his niece's body until a neighbor brought him a chair. He couldn't understand it, he was breathing hard.
The girl, Podolyak points out, lost her life « in the 19th Russian terrorist attack on the Ukrainian capital since the beginning of May . This is not a war for turf or for geopolitical interests. This is a war between the forces of absolute good and evil, where the dividing line between the two worlds is the border with Ukraine. It's all very clear. Everything is recorded in this creepy photo. Good must prevail or else the modern world, with all its humanistic values, will lie in the spotlight, and beside it will be an empty chair of a lost future .'
Explosions in Kiev also occurred this night, when the capital's air defense systems went into action.
Moscow for its part said it rejected an attempt by Ukrainian troops to invade its southwestern region of Belgorod last night . "Overall, the attack involved up to 70 militiamen, five tanks, four armored vehicles, seven pickup trucks and a Kamaz truck," the Russian Defense Ministry said, reporting at least three crossing attempts. Moscow says it used aviation and artillery to repel attacks, killing more than 50 Ukrainian fighters.
