UKRAINE, KHARKIV — “When I got mad at him, he was upset at first, but then he came up to me and said, ‘Do you love me?’ I told him, ‘I love and adore you.’ And he asked me, ‘Which is stronger — loving or adoring?’”
Tetiana Matiash-Myrna is talking about her son. They had never been upset at each other for too long – always made up quickly after arguments. “We had a special connection,” Tatiana said and started crying. 11-year-old Mark died after the Russian attack on Kharkiv on Oct. 30, 2024.
On that day, the Russians hit an apartment building in the Saltivskyi district with a glide bomb. Tetiana’s family lived on the fourth floor. It has completely collapsed. The woman was seriously injured and went through over 10 surgeries.
Mark died in an ambulance on the way to the hospital.
A year passed. Tetiana was recovering from her injuries in Latvia. She shared her pain with Latvian journalists and decided that the whole world should know about the tragedies of Ukrainian parents. She initiated the project “Angels of Kharkiv region.” With the support of the local Prosecutor’s Office and Human Rights Protection Group, the exhibition that shows photos of children who died in Russian attacks on Kharkiv and Kharkiv oblast opened on Dec. 3, 2025. Gwara Media’s journalists attended it.
“Russia kills children. The whole world must see it. It is not politics. Not a statistic. These are children who went to school, dreamed, drew, enjoyed their lives, but their lives were taken away,” said Tatiana during her opening speech.
The event started with a moment of silence. There were a lot of people. Relatives of killed children, representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office, the Kharkiv police, Ukraine’s ombudsman, and activists. Some visitors brought flowers and toys.
One of the organizers read a letter from Tatiana Tarasenko, the mother of Anton, the first child Russia killed in the Kharkiv oblast. He died on Feb. 24, day one of the full-scale invasion, during a Russian missile attack on Chuhuiv, a city southeast of Kharkiv.
“Today, I speak not only on my own name, but on behalf of all parents who have lost their children in this terrible war. This is the place where we honor their memory. And they continue to watch over us, but now only from photos,” Tetiana wrote in her letter.
According to the local prosecutor’s office, Russia has killed 105 more children in the Kharkiv region since the day Anton died. The youngest was two months old.
Amil Omarov, head prosecutor in Kharkiv oblast, showed a photo of one of the oldest children. Russia killed 17-year-old Karyna Bakhur, a master of sports and Ukrainian champion in kickboxing and Cossack fighting, on Nov. 18 during an attack on Berestyn.
A total of 36 photographs covered the walls — submitted by 36 parents who agreed to participate in the exhibition and show “what Russia is doing to the Ukrainian people,” said Yevhen Zakharov, director of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group.
A woman came up to the stand, ran her hand over it, and started crying. The photo showed seven-year-old Oleksii, almost four-year-old Mykhailo, and 10-month-old Pavlo — three brothers who died along with their parents during Russia’s night attack on Kharkiv on Feb. 9, 2024. “The family was killed in their own home, engulfed in flames,” was written on the stand.
The woman’s name is Tetiana Putiatina. That night, she lost her son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren.
“Here’s the photo. I took it. They were in my room,” Tetiana’s voice trembled as she was pointing at the picture of three boys. She paused; wiped away her tears. She lived with her children and grandchildren in that house that burned down. Her son and his wife had planned to build a separate house for their eldest son.
“Oleksii would always come up to me and say, ‘Grandma, I’m not going anywhere without you.’ But he left,” Tatiana started to cry again, “They all left.”
Near the exit, there was a small “memorial table” where everyone could write down names that should not be forgotten. All the blank sheets lying there were filled with inscriptions by the end of the event.
Tetiana Matiash-Myrna also wrote the name of her son, Mark, “I want the whole world to see our tragedy.”
In February, on the anniversary of the Russian full-scale invasion, the organizers plan to take the exhibition to Europe. In Kharkiv, the exhibition will be open till Dec. 25.
Read more
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Hello! This is Elsa, the author of this article. Tetiana Matiash-Myrna, the mother of the killed Mark, told me that her future had been taken away and now the meaning of her life is to shout about her pain to the whole world.
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