The Ukrainian athletics world is devastated by the sudden death of 11-year-old Katya Dyachenko, one of the country’s most talented gymnasts. The girl and her father were killed when their home in Mariupol was hit by a rocket attack.
Ukrainian parliamentarian Anna Purtova confirmed the death and posted a photo of the teenage girl on Twitter. “This is our gymnast Katya Dyachenko. She is 11 years old. She died under the rubble of her home in Mariupol when a Russian missile hit her earlier in the day. She could have had a bright future ahead of her as a young Ukrainian champion. But in a second she was gone.”
Dyachenko dreamed of competing for her country in the Olympics and thus becoming a world-famous gymnast, her friends in Ukrainian media say. “Katya had a fantastic life ahead of her, but she will never be able to show her talent again,” fellow gymnast Lidia Vynogradna wrote on Instagram. “She is dead. She died because she was on the run from the Russian army that wants to burn this heroic city to ashes.”
mass grave
Due to the high number of deaths in Mariupol, Dyachenko’s body cannot end up in a cemetery, Vynogradna believes. “No one will be able to visit her in the cemetery. In my head all I see is the image of a little girl wrapped in a plastic bag and buried in a garden. This is the only way people can be buried now. Is this really conceivable in the 21st century?”
Not only in Ukraine, but all over the world, the girl’s death is met with astonishment. “I can’t believe it,” writes the president of the Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation. “What world do we live in? Who needs this perverse war?”
“RIP, Katia! The young, beautiful gymnast from Mariupol left this world far too early. She is one of the many victims of a senseless war,” added the Swiss Gymnastics Federation.
Yorrick de Vries
@hugeglassofmilk
Only ruins
Mariupol has been bombed for weeks. The international community is deeply concerned about the dire situation in the southern port city. Thousands of people are said to have died, according to Ukrainian authorities. The city, where more than 400,000 people lived before the war, is also struggling with shortages. There is no water supply, electricity and heating.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there was nothing left of the city due to weeks of bombing. “Only ruins,” he said in a video address.
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