Talented 11-year-old gymnast with 'smile for the world' killed in Russian bombardment of Mariupol
Tributes have been paid to an 11-year-old gymnast killed in the besieged city of Mariupol amid heavy Russia shelling.
Kateryna Dyachenko reportedly died after her home was bombed by Russian forces in the southern city, which has now been under siege for over two weeks.
As Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine stretches into a second month, the city of Mariupol in particular as taken a fierce pounding. Local officials have resorted to digging mass graves for the ever-growing number of those who have died, with Human Rights Watch saying the civilian death toll in the area could be as high as 3,000.
Kateryna's coach, Anastasia Meshchanenkova, confirmed the news in an Instagram post, writing: "Can there be any excuse for this? Look at this talented girl. She could give a smile to the world!
"What are the children guilty of? I believe that everyone involved in this crime will find a place in hell as soon as possible."
Gymnastics organisations from around the globe have paid tribute to the young girl.
Swiss Rhythmic Gymnastics wrote: "RIP, Katya! The young, beautiful gymnast from Mariupol left this world far too early.
"She is one of many victims of a senseless war."
Bulgarian gymnast Iliana Raeva, who is the president of the country's Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, said: "I can't believe it… our colleague from Ukraine shared this terrible tragedy.
"This wonderfully tender creature is already an angel."
She added: "I can't believe we live in such a cruel world."
The news comes after Ukrainian authorities said more than 120 children have been killed during the course of Putin's war.
A further 167 children have been wounded, the office of the prosecutor general said on Wednesday.
The figures have not been able to be independently verified.
Watch: Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko says he cries 'every day' at destruction Putin has caused
Ukraine also claimed on Tuesday that 2,389 children had been "kidnapped" by Russia and transported across the border from the eastern oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The US Embassy in Kyiv cited the Ukrainian foreign ministry, tweeting: “This is not assistance. It is kidnapping.
The ministry called it a “gross violation of international law”.
More than 100,000 people are believed to be trapped inside Mariupol with no access to food, water, power or heat.
Authorities in Mariupol said several thousand of its residents had been forcibly deported to Russia.
Intense Russian air strikes have turned Mariupol into the "ashes of a dead land", the city council said on Tuesday, as street fighting and bombardments raged in the port city.
Local authorities said on Sunday that thousands of residents had been taken by force across the border but did not provide a more precise figure. Russian news agencies said at the time that buses had carried several hundred people Moscow calls refugees from Mariupol to Russia in recent days.
"Residents of the Left Bank district are beginning to be deported en masse to Russia. In total, about 15,000 Mariupol residents have been subjected to illegal deportation," Mariupol city council said in a statement issued on Thursday.
Russia denies targeting civilians in what President Vladimir Putin calls a "special military operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told a video briefing that Ukrainian authorities were continuing efforts to secure agreement from Russia to open a safe corridor to and from Mariupol.
Each side has blamed the other for the repeated failure to agree on arrangements to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, control of which would help Russia secure a land corridor to the Crimea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address to Italy's parliament on Tuesday that there was "nothing left" in Mariupol after weeks of Russian bombardment.
