Wounded, alone and orphaned, 12-year-old Ukrainian becomes Russia’s “narrative weapon”

Before the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Kira Obedinsky was a joyful and beloved 12-year-old girl. Now orphaned, injured and alone in a Russian-controlled hospital in eastern Ukraine, she has become an unwitting pawn in Moscow’s information war.

Obedinsky’s mother died when she was a baby. Her father Yevhen Obedinsky, a former captain of Ukraine’s national water polo team, was shot and killed as Russian forces fought their way into the southeastern city of Mariupol on March 17.

Days later, Kira and her father’s girlfriend tried to flee the city on foot alongside neighbors. But after she was injured in a landmine explosion, Kira was taken to a hospital in the Donetsk region, which is controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.

Now, Kira’s grandfather, Oleksander, fears he’ll never see her again. He said a dissident government official in Donetsk called and invited him to travel there to claim it, which is impossible because of the war.

He says he spoke to the hospital and was told that Kira will be sent to an orphanage in Russia. They took her documents, he said, and was told that Kira will receive new documents in Russia.

The Russian government said it helped transport at least 60,000 Ukrainians to safety across the Russian border. The Ukrainian government said about 40,000 were relocated against their will, describing it as kidnapping and forced deportation.

Russian media, which has repeatedly played down the brutality of the conflict in Ukraine, showed a video of Kira happily talking about how she can sometimes call her grandfather.

This is “proof” that she was not kidnapped, according to a Russian TV presenter, who dubbed the claim another “Ukrainian hoax”.

Meanwhile, Oleksander received an audio message from Kira telling him not to cry. But the young woman who lost her family, her freedom and her home in Russia’s war can’t hold back her own tears.

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” she says. “I want to cry.”