Irina stayed in Bucha to help people. She spent a week in the Epicenter shopping center, preparing food for the locals. On March 5, Irina tried to evacuate and was shot dead by Russian soldiers.
The entire world has seen the photo of a lady with a red manicure who had been shot dead and whose body was found in Bucha after the Russian occupiers had abandoned it. This lady is Iryna Filkina.
In April, she would have been 53.
Iryna is survived by her two daughters. They also lived in Kyiv’s suburbs but managed to evacuate abroad on time. As per their words, she refused to leave. She stayed to help people. Iryna spent a week in the Epicenter trade center; she cooked for the locals, hiding there. Her daughter, Olha Shchyruk, told about it in her interview for CNN.
On March 5, Iryna tried to leave Bucha. However, the car, taking people out, didn’t have enough room. So she decided to go back home by bicycle. Her children were persuading her from it, telling her that it would be dangerous.
“Olha, don’t you know your mother? I can move mountains!” — was Iryna’s reply to her daughter. It was their last telephone conversation. The lady didn’t make it home.
Later, the video, shot by the unmanned flying vehicle before March 10, was posted in the network. It showed a person riding a black bicycle along Yablunska street (Iryna had such a bicycle), and then she was shot dead by the Russian soldiers. Another video from the same street showed a woman in a blue coat lying next to a bicycle.
To the bitter end, her family refused to believe that it was Iryna. They recognized their mother only when the sad photo, made by Reuters, flew around the world. They recognized her hand and her manicure.
Now, Iryna’s daughters are starting a foundation in the memory of Filkina, to help the children who have suffered from the war.
“We will prove that we are strong and invincible, and we can raise everyone, whom they forced to get on their knees, up again,” — Olha wrote on Instagram, telling about the Foundation.
Rest in peace.
A story from the instagram of the Victims of russia channel.
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