The woman herself fled the war in her homeland. “For weeks I remained unknown about my mother’s fate,” she told French BFM. I thought she was hiding in a basement somewhere, but that photo killed all hope. Later I learned that the Russian troops drowned her with bullets. ”

Vilkina’s nail technician recognized her instantly from that heart on her ring finger. “Irina has been coming to my makeup class since the beginning of February,” makeup artist Anastasia Subacheva told CNN. I last saw her the day before the war began.”

Subacheva says that Irina Vilkina was full of plans. She turned 53 in April and wanted to focus on herself after working tirelessly for the past three decades, raising her two daughters between Bucha and Irpin, on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Vilkina bought her first set of blush, eyeliner and concealer from Sobacheva, which she plans to wear to an upcoming concert. She got a cherry red manicure and drew “a heart on her finger because she’s starting to love herself,” according to Sopateva.

But its plans were halted in late February when Russia invaded Ukraine. Her daughters decided to cross the border into Poland, but Vilkina stayed to help people. According to her daughter, she spent a week in the Epicenter shopping center in Bucha, feeding people sheltering there and cooking for the Ukrainian army.

On March 5, Fulkina tried to get a seat in one of the cars evacuating people from the mall from the city. But when there was no more room, I decided to go home by bike. One of Vilkina’s daughters, 26, Olga Sherk, said she begged her mother not to ride her black bike home that day. I asked her to take the train out of town instead. “I told her it was not safe there. Sherrock told CNN that Russia occupied the whole village and killed the people.” “Olga, does your mother not know? I can move mountains!”

It was the last conversation they had. Our astronomers did not come home that day.

Sherrock refused to believe her mother had died, despite the family being told by the Ukrainian military that she had died on March 5. The military said it would be impossible to recover her body because a Russian tank was nearby.

While her daughter continued to search for her, Irina lay alone on Yablonska Street, where, after months of Russian occupation, at least 20 more bodies of civilians were found. Shchyruk has no idea when she will see her mother’s body. Local officials have spent the past week removing bodies and clearing mines from the city.

The Mayor of Bhutia estimates that as many as 300 people have died under the Russian occupation, as reports of summary executions, brutality and indiscriminate bombing have led to global rage and new sanctions against Moscow.

Shchyruk wants to create a foundation called Filkina to help young Ukrainians affected by the war. “I want the image of her hand to be a symbol of new beginnings,” she said. “This symbol tells the occupiers that they can do anything for us, but they cannot take away the most important thing: love. Love for people they do not have.”

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