Ukrainian girl, 9, pens letter to mom who died: ‘We will meet in heaven’

A heartbreaking letter penned by a young Ukrainian girl to her deceased mother is touching hearts worldwide after it was shared to Twitter.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser and former deputy minister at Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, shared a photo of the letter earlier this week, which was written in a day planner.

The note was written on March 8 by a nine-year-old girl by the name of Galia, just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine.

It’s unclear how Gerashchenko came into possession of the letter.

Her mother was killed in Borodyanka, a Ukrainian city that has faced horrific conditions since the attack began.

“Mum, this letter is your present,” she wrote, according to a translation of the letter. “…If you think that you nurtured me for no reason, you are not right. Thank you for the 9 years of my life. Thank you so much for my childhood. You are the best mother in the world! I will never forget you! I wish you happiness in heaven. I wish you to go to heaven. We will meet in heaven. I will try to behave myself to go to heaven. Kissing you.”

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Ukrainian officials are still counting the death toll in Borodyanka, but officials put “conservative” estimates at 5,000, the Guardian reported.

Last Thursday, investigators found 26 bodies among rubble in Borodyanka. Ukrainian troops were able to recently regain control over the city from Russian troops, according to Reuters. As of Monday, local rescuers were still attempting to find missing residents.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the destruction in Borodyanka “much more disastrous” than in the neighbouring city of Bucha, which made headlines as an example of extreme brutality upon Russia’s withdrawal from the area in late March.

In a tweet, Illia Ponomarenko, a reporter for the Kyiv Independent, called Borodyanka “the worst ruined city in the Kyiv region.”